


Champion of the Realm

by fitzgarbage



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament, Chivalry, Established Verkwan, Horsemanship, Horses, M/M, Mingyu-Hyung (95 line mingyu), Rivalry, Rivals to Lovers, You Tried To Kill Me With A Real Sword, established Junhao, established soonwoo but they’re still really working on it, graphic depictions of jousting, homoerotic swordfighting, irl knight mingyu, minor cw for depiction of injury, minor cw for internalized homophobia & coming out plotlines, revelry - Freeform, seventeen ensemble fic, valiant disputes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:49:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 47,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27794878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fitzgarbage/pseuds/fitzgarbage
Summary: Mingyu is usually a person who is gentle to the point of naivety. Hardworking and open and innocent, like everyone’s as simple-hearted as a horse. But not towards Seokmin.
Relationships: Jeon Wonwoo/Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi, Kim Mingyu/Lee Seokmin | DK
Comments: 22
Kudos: 86
Collections: Match Point: The SEVENTEEN Sports Fic Fest





	Champion of the Realm

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [SVTSportsFest](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/SVTSportsFest) collection. 



> LOTS OF THANKS:  
> thank you sierra for beta-ing this fic with your incredible intersection of dinner theatre + horse expertise! I could not have asked for a more perfect beta reader.  
> thank you cat for introducing me to some beautiful real life andalusians, not to mention all the other horse expertise i have absorbed from you! i am still no expert but i sure do love horses and i am extremely grateful for the hands-on experience you have given me!  
> thank you jen & nikita for listening to me talk about medieval times for the last 6 months oh my god. thank you for the feedback and enthusiasm. you guys are basically co writers at this point. there is nothing in this world that i am more grateful for than having you two in my life to share my excitement.  
> thanks also to kim & jaz for helping me work out various tangles!  
> and thanks to everybody else who let me yell about this! i know it was supposed to be a secret sorry I didn't keep it very well. i just got really excited. 
> 
> [character guide](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/7SDKp8cc2HTGyS31FXtIecWXI2SBOgbYHtVlQKQCvqbKphs2nmOBPk8J8-5c54YcUqA-rdGYWq_POSxeIOtbZFWWmje2AmT6wqWjKhRFeFZ8OrZbAdNfhJCKWR5DrIuXGRPggj0y)

YE OLDE PART ONE

“Have you seen the new Knight?” asks Serf Joshua. “He’s so hot.”

Barkeep Jeonghan nods over the polished wooden counter of the tavern. “ _Super_ hot. And apparently he’s really talented. I heard he’s never jousted before, but he unseated Chan at practice.”

“Chan the Green Knight?” Serf Joshua asks rhetorically, and Barkeep Jeonghan nods wisely as he busies himself polishing a flask for the tenth time. Serf Joshua says, “But he’s supposed to be unbeatable.”

“Well, Mingyu can beat him,” says Jeonghan.

“Mingyu doesn’t count,” Serf Joshua says as he adjusts the sleeve of his tunic. “He can beat anyone. He’s like, a real Knight.”

Barkeep Jeonghan says, “Exactly.”

“That doesn’t even matter,” Serf Joshua snaps, remembering his conversation. “Did you see him looking at me?”

Barkeep Jeonghan is spared the need of answering, because right at that moment, Knight Wonu bursts into the tavern from the back door.

“Pocari Sweat,” Wonu pants. “Please.” Sweat gleams on his face, and his hair is plastered down like he just pulled off his helmet. He’s wearing his uniform, the black and white diamond patterned tunic and the pauldrons and the leggings. He pulls off his leather gauntlets, then pushes his sweaty, chin-length hair off his face.

“What happened to you?” asks Barkeep Jeonghan, unconcerned, as he reaches under the counter to grab a bottle from the reach-in. “You’re not supposed to be up here.”

“We still have ten minutes,” says Wonu. He cracks the bottle open and starts pounding it. Serf Joshua and Barkeep Jeonghan watch him in vague horror as he swallows it all in deep gulps. When he’s done, he gently screws the lid back on the crumpled bottle and says, “Soonyoung fell off his horse.”

“Whoa, is he okay?” asks Jeonghan.

“He says he’s fine,” Wonu says. “He got dragged for a second but he’s not limping or anything.”

“So why are _you_ the Pocari-chugging one?” asks Serf Joshua.

“Because I untangled him from the longe line,” Wonu says. He’s still breathing heavy. “My fight or flight kicked in.”

“Aw, and you chose fight?” Jeonghan says. “That’s cute.”

Knight Wonu narrows his eyes a little. “He was about to get trampled by a horse.”

“And you saved him,” Jeonghan says. “Oh, to be the flower blooming in a noble Knight’s heart.”

“Okay,” Wonu says. He’s calming down, so he’s getting annoyed. “Well, I should get back there. Can I have another Pocari for Soonyoung?”

Jeonghan grabs one and slides it over the counter, then says, with a little wave of his fist, “Bye. Fighting.”

“Fighting,” Serf Joshua says, equally flatly.

Wonu throws a vague wave behind him, already pushing through the back door.

In the dim common area, Soonyoung is sitting on a bench while the on-call physician looks over him. Soonyoung is saying, “I’m good, I’m good.”

“Sure,” the physician is saying. She knows Soonyoung pretty well by now. “But you can’t go out there until I declare you fit and healthy, so stop wiggling.”

Soonyoung rolls his eyes up at Wonu, and Wonu shrugs. The physician moves Soonyoung’s foot around and says, “Does this hurt?”

“No way,” Soonyoung lies, wincing.

Soonyoung is gonna do what Soonyoung does, and Wonu has to go get ready, so he nods his sympathy once more and heads back to the changing room with the other Knights.

“How is he?” asks Jihoon, half-dressed in red, when Wonu starts digging around a communal drawer for a face wipe and some dry shampoo.

Wonu says, “I don’t know, but he’s still going out there.”

Jihoon looks very serious. “He really needs to be more careful.”

Wonu says, “I know,” then he pulls his helmet on.

♞

First, the serfs bring to each citizen in the stands King Alfonso's Finest Kimchi Stew, Baked Sweet Potato, and a beverage of their choosing.

Then, a proud gray Andalusian stallion named Sancho performs a dance, led by a Knight in plain clothes (sharp-eyed Citizens of the Realm may recognize him later as the tall, dark and handsome Blue Knight). The dance is stunning and smooth and rehearsed to perfection, as is to be expected from all of King Alfonso's entertainment. The performance is elegant to the very end, both Sancho and the plainclothes Knight are very proud, and the Citizens cheer with delight.

After Sancho dances away, a graceful falconer emerges into the arena in a leather vest and a jaunty green cap. Triumphant music plays as he leads his bird, like an extension of himself, in swoops high above the crowd, moves with her in figure eights and steep, exhilarating nosedives, and finally guides her safely back to his wrist.

Satisfied with the fanfare, King Alfonso then himself emerges to address his kingdom. He is a genial man with bright, kind eyes and long, straight, dark hair. He wears a golden crown and is swathed in a red velvet robe with glittering rings on each of his fingers.

"Thank you," he calls to his people, "For gathering here to feast with me today, as we honor the bravest Knights in our Realm."

He introduces six Knights each one by one and allows them to show off their prowess, while Serfs begin to serve King Alfonso's Finest Herb Roasted Chicken. (While food is served Medieval Style, AKA no utensils, every Citizen of the Realm may feel free to request from their Serf chopsticks, a knife, and/or a spoon).

The cocksure Green Knight shoots three arrows from his moving horse, each of which hit dead center on successive targets, and the fetching Blue Knight takes off his helmet and shakes out his shiny black hair, smiles dashingly, and tosses carnations into the crowd. The humble Black and White knight displays his excellent swordsmanship in gleaming flashes of light. The honorable Red Knight leads his horse through an agility course, ending in a huge, majestic leap. The cheeky Yellow Knight then rides over a maze of swords and pikes. Finally, the bright and friendly Orange Knight rides around with his sword drawn and leads the Citizens of the Realm in a chant to bolster enthusiasm for the coming games.

With that, the Knights take their places at the far end of the arena and King Alfonso returns to his shining tower. He begins to announce the day's Tournament of Champions. "A Joust," he calls to the excited crowd, "And a test of skill."

But lo, what is this? In a _full handstand_ on the back of an enormous, blue-black Friesian stallion called Caspar, a small, muscular man with a terrible scar over one eye rides into the arena, flanked by two surly men on smaller horses in dirty leather armor. Clouds blot out the sun and the festive music turns sinister. Suddenly, the man flips from the handstand, his feet landing firm upon the saddle. He addresses the Knights from above as his horse walks a slow circle. "A brave Knight from each corner of the land," the man sneers, "And yet, one corner missed, My Liege." He gestures up to King Alfonso in his turret. "Did you not think of my barren edge of this land? My trees which bear no fruit? Are my people not welcome to share your bounty? To gather for your Tourneys?"

Then he flips from the tall horse, seeming almost suspended in air for a moment, and he lands crouched on the ground at the same instant as he draws a dagger from his belt. This frightens every horse in the arena; the Red Knight's horse rears up, and the Black and White knight has to speak softly to keep his calm. 

"Your threats are not welcome here, not on this day of celebration!" the just King booms.

The man in dark clothes sheaths his weapon with a swagger and laughs, satisfied to be feared. With great confidence, he shouts, "Fine, play your games. Enjoy your feast. But this is not the last you will see of the Duke of Galicia!"

Then, as if weightless, he jumps back onto his horse, swinging his body back and up before he lands in the saddle, and they run from the arena as quickly as they appeared.

Mingyu has ten minutes of rest before his joust with Junhui, the Yellow Knight. He likes to use that time to chug some water and stretch. He's already sweaty. By the end of the night he'll feel like a melted Melona, but that's probably why he sleeps so well at night. He can't think about sleeping now, though, because he's still going to be here for many hours. He's barely getting started with all the jousting and swordfighting and trying to save the Realm and all, and then when everything ends he'll be cleaning tack and putting Ramiro away for the night before he even thinks about cleaning himself up. Then maybe he'll eat? Then he can go home and go to bed. For now he's making sure all his muscles are nice and limber, in case he has to fall off a horse in a minute.

Junhui uses the time to sit next to Minghao and meditate in silence. He says it helps him aim his lance. Jihoon, the Red Knight, scrolls on his phone, even though it's completely outlawed to have it with him, and Mingyu is supposed to be the one enforcing that. Black and White knight Wonu is sitting with Soonyoung, who is still in high spirits, but seems a little tired after getting dragged this afternoon and still refusing to simplify his opening routine. If Mingyu looked closely, he'd probably be able to read Wonu's lips saying, "You don't have to do the handstand every time."

Mingyu only has time for a couple deep breaths and a good hip stretch before he's pulling his blue tunic back on over his light chain mail, securing his helmet, and swinging up onto Ramiro. He lines up at the entrance next to Junhui as the Green Knight Chan and the new Orange Knight Seokmin pull in after their joust. Chan is perfect, posture high and straight, but obviously Seokmin is arching his back and pulling on his reins so hard that it's gotta be choking his horse. Mingyu can't think about that right now.

They hear their cue, and Mingyu and Junhui do a quick high five before riding out to joust.

Most of the evening is just for showing off, but the joust between the Blue Knight and the Yellow Knight is mostly real. Though, Mingyu goes easy on Junhui for the sake of the crowd. It isn't anything against Junhui that he has no chance of winning, it's just that Mingyu has a lot more experience with horses. Junhui is an excellent Knight in his own right, agile and honest.

They line up their lances and go forth. It is a close match, but on the third round Junhui finally unseats Mingyu, who falls from his horse in an easy roll. Junhui hops from his horse, too, and then they clash swords. That match is closer than the joust, but Mingyu wins, and Junhui limps with the help of a Squire from the arena to tend to his wounds while Mingyu rides around in triumph. For good measure, he gives another Lady of the Realm a pink carnation. 

Then he goes to drink some water and wave a fan in front of his face while he waits for the next event.

In the Joust, the Black and White Knight emerges the overall victor. In celebration of his victory, he pledges his life and soul to the honor of the Realm, a mostly symbolic gesture, as that very same oath was part of being Knighted in the first place.

Still, the Black and White Knight may not be the overall victor of the day's games, as there remain the tests of skill.

At the flag toss, the arrogant Green Knight emerges the victor. He wins again at the javelin throw and beats his chest, screaming his victory. In tilting, where the Knights aim lances through small hanging metal rings, the Black and White Knight narrowly beats the Yellow Knight.

So, with two victories each, a tie is declared between the Black and White Knight and the Green Knight, and a final clash of blades will declare the victor.

It comes as little surprise to any Citizen of the Realm that the quiet and respectful Black and White Knight summarily beats the rageful Green Knight. It, too, comes as little surprise that the Green Knight mounts his horse and leaves in anger after swearing his vengeance upon the King.

Seokmin is dead on his feet. That has nothing to do with his mood, which is very good, it's just a fact. He feels like it's been years since the last time he wasn't either climbing on or climbing off a horse. He even dreamed about it last night, an endless loop of mounting and dismounting. He's sore all over in a way he never was during training, never has been at any other job, and his cool new Orange uniform is already starting to smell like old sweat, even though he's only been wearing it for five days.

But all this exhaustion comes with all the excitement of finally getting out there in front of the Citizens of the Realm and showing them what he can do. It's worth it. He worked really hard for this. He loves being a Knight.

The evening's events are almost to a close, so he has a few minutes to rest now, which he would like to use to take the world's shortest nap. But Jihoon's been going around talking to everyone, and he's coming up to Seokmin now.

"Hey," Jihoon says, carrying his helmet under his arm.

"Hi, Hyung," Seokmin grins. "What's up?"

"Uh, a bunch of us are going to get Korean barbecue later. We go on Sundays, usually. Do you want to come?"

Seokmin is so tired, but it's really hard for him to say no to a hang, especially with new people who have (mostly) been spectacularly friendly to him. So he says, "Of course I'll go."

"Cool," Jihoon says. "We all kind of roll in whenever we're done here. Usually it's all the Knights and Soonyoung and a couple chill Serfs."

"Can't wait," Seokmin is saying, but then cues start coming and they have to start finding their positions again.

The fair and just King Alfonso is giving his speech congratulating all the Knights, but especially the chivalrous Black and White Knight, who has now been named Champion of the Realm. The King is nearly finished bestowing the honor, when to his great dismay, the Duke of Galicia returns to the arena.

The Duke is doing another handstand on the back of his enormous, beautiful horse with the two surly soldiers behind him. He is followed closely by a piteous defector, the Green Knight, who has, in his spite, turned evil.

While the Duke approaches the center of the arena, he steps slowly from his handstand into a backbend, and then he stands up tall and proud on the horse's back to menace the arena once more.

"I kept my promise that I would return," he calls up to the furious King as the sky again turns dark and the music becomes as ominous and hateful as the Duke himself. "Your lackey has told me everything."

"You are not welcome here," the King booms down. "I have made my position clear. If you cannot leave, you will be made to do so!"

"I'd like to see the person who can beat one such as me," the Duke shouts arrogantly, and then he does a graceful blackflip off the horse. "Who dares challenge me?" he yells. He looks around wildly, and begins to laugh up at the King, just in time to be interrupted.

"I do," calls one Black and White Knight in a deep, even voice. "I am the Champion of the Realm, and I challenge you to fight for the honor of Spain."

"Honor?" the Duke spits, eyes sparkling with rage and bloodthirst as he approaches the edge of the arena where the Knights and their horses stand in a neat line.

"You know nothing of it," says the Black and White Knight as he dismounts. He approaches the Duke in the center of the arena, but not before the Green Knight hurries forward, drawing his sword against a man he would earlier today have called his brother.

This fight is swift. In vengeance the Green Knight falls. The Black and White Knight makes short work of him.

As a Squire carries his disgraced form away, the Knight and the Duke finally meet breathlessly in the center of the arena. "A pity you killed my new servant," the Duke says, spine chillingly intense. "I had only just gotten him."

They circle each other tensely, until finally the Duke raises his sword and the brave Black and White Knight, nursing an injury from his fight with the late Green Knight, raises his to meet it.

In clashes of steel so fierce that sparks fly, the two challengers face off. Killing blows are only nearly missed, and the two each take tumbles before the fight is through. There is an energy between them, a rivalry that pulls their swords together, and it is impossible for any Citizen of the Realm to look away, even to enjoy King Alfonso's Finest Sponge Cake.

Yet, after a tense battle, it seems the fight is through, and the dishonorable Duke is soon to plunge his great sword through the stomach of the wilted Champion. Spain is lost; the King's name besmirched. The Duke relishes the moment, laughing as he holds his sword over the Black and White Knight's prone body.

But no, the Knight rises for one final clash of swords against the evil Duke, and with it, Good prevails.

The Duke is dead, thrown over the back of his own horse, and the Black and White Knight's brave companions hold his exhausted body up as he accepts his praise once more from the King, and his adoration, finally, from his people.

♞

Mingyu is always the last person to arrive at barbecue, because he has trouble leaving the horses. Jihoon is always late, too, but he does his duties perfunctorily. Where Mingyu lingers at the stables, sometimes until he's the last to leave the darkened building, Jihoon does his work as quickly as possible so that he can start his weekend. It sounds harsh, but they both have a way with horses that none of the other Knights can fully understand. Mingyu does well because he's extremely kind and patient, and Jihoon does well because he's straightforward and predictable.

That's what Chan is telling Seokmin over the first round of samgyeopsal, as people Seokmin recognizes arrive in ones and twos and start filling the little room.

"They'll probably be here in like forty-five minutes," Chan says. He's wearing jeans and a pastel hoodie, yet looks relatively exactly the same as he does in uniform: it's the great posture and self-assuredness that make him. "Or, Jihoon-hyung in half an hour, and Mingyu-hyung in 45. I'll bet you."

"Why do they stay so late?" Seokmin is curious. "We aren't supposed to take care of the horses, right? Like, that's not our job? No one told me I was supposed to."

"Nah," Chan says. "Those two are just horse freaks. Jihoon-hyung's family does horse shows, and Mingyu-hyung is always like, _This is just what you do_. Personally, I think it makes the rest of us look bad. _"_

"But there are people hired to, like, clean all the stuff. Squires."

"Grooms," Chan gently corrects. "Yeah."

"Then I don't understand why they want to stay. Aren't they tired? I'm tired," he laughs. 

Chan finishes chewing the huge piece of samgyeopsal he just picked off the grill and then he says, "Ask Mingyu-hyung about it sometime. You'll get it. I love when he starts going on about like, mutual trust and friendship and the age old relationship between human and horse." 

"I would," Seokmin admits, "But I don't think he likes me."

"Impossible," Soonyoung butts in from Chan's other side. He's wearing a multicolored track jacket and has bleached hair with dark roots when he isn't wearing a dirty leather cap. "Mingyu-hyung loves everyone."

Seokmin has seen that Mingyu is usually nice, but all his own interactions with him have been kind of terse, like Mingyu is saying only what he needs to say and then moving onto the next thing. Seokmin can respect it; Mingyu didn't become Head Knight by _not_ being serious about his job. He asks Chan, "Is his vibe weird? Like, does he seem mean at first? I just feel like he glares at me a lot."

Soonyoung and Wonu (who is wearing an oversized black t-shirt and chunky glasses with his hair half tied back) exchange a confused look, and then Soonyoung looks back to Seokmin and says, "We must not be talking about the same Mingyu-hyung."

Seokmin pretends to be thinking. "Yeah, he's like seven feet tall? Usually in blue? Great hair? Into horses? Could kill any one of us with a sword?"

"That's him," Soonyoung confirms. "How weird."

"Maybe I'm just reading it wrong," Seokmin shrugs. He usually isn't; he knows how to read a person, and he's usually really good at making friends with everyone he encounters. But he's got to admit that he's a bit intimidated by Mingyu, which could be messing with his head.

Mingyu is just such a perfect Knight. He's at the stable right now, while Seokmin is shoveling bulgogi into his mouth, because he is just that chivalrous. He's been doing equestrian sports since he was like seven, apparently, which is a lot for Seokmin to live up to. Obviously Seokmin knows a few things about horses _now_ , but he certainly didn't when he started his training. He has a lot to learn.

Seokmin gets along much better with the other Knights, like Junhui, the Yellow Knight, who is sitting across the table from Seokmin with his boyfriend Minghao. Minghao does the falconry and helps with the costumes and is also everybody's understudy, though he seems to mostly prefer the birds. Minghao and Junhui both seemed a little standoffish at first, but it turned out they were just really quiet and really weird. Seokmin isn't quiet at all, but he can be weird, so they get along pretty well. Both of them smile easily and don't seem stressed out.

And he likes Chan, the youngest person in the cast, but someone who holds his own under double the pressure. Chan goes to college as well as working here, which seems like a _lot_ , but here Seokmin is yawning over his kalbi while Chan has energy to spare. And he likes Wonu, who seems at first glance like an everyday person but then goes home with Soonyoung every night.

Because they have to trust each other during combat, on these big shining willful scary horses, because they train together and sweat together and fight together every day, Seokmin bonded with all the Knights really quickly, except for Mingyu.

And it's not just the Knights. Seokmin got this job from his old theatre friend King Alfonso, whose real name is Seungcheol, who is sitting directly across the table from him. He looks completely different and very young out of his wig and in his fashionable, oversized street clothes. It would be fun if Seokmin got to wear a wig too, but it would just fly off while he was sword fighting.

There are even a couple of Serfs here. Seokmin doesn't know any of them super well yet, but they all seem cool. One of the Serfs is named Joshua, and one is Seungkwan, and the bartender is Jeonghan. Seungkwan's boyfriend Hansol is also here, but he doesn't work with them. When Seokmin asked him why not, he said, "Scared of horses, man."

"Same," Seokmin laughed, more sincerely than he wished he was, and ever since then he and Hansol have been friends.

And now Jihoon is joining the table, at an empty seat between Junhui and Seungcheol. As soon as he sits down, Chan whispers, "33 minutes." Then he calls to Jihoon, "Hey! Where's Mingyu-hyung?"

"Like ten minutes behind me," Jihoon says as he starts grabbing things off the two grills he can reach.

As Jihoon expressionlessly shoves three different meats into his mouth at once, Chan looks at Seokmin and says, "Told you."

A perfect eleven minutes later, Mingyu makes his way to the last open seat at the table.

Everybody is so excited to see him that there's a bit of subdued cheering when he settles in. Seungcheol and Seungkwan hoot. Soonyoung calls "He's here!" while Wonu bangs on the table with the side of a stiff fist.

Mingyu smiles his innocent, sweet little smile and says, "Hi, everybody. How's it going?" He has a slight lisp, which is kind of jarring, since he's so big and handsome.

"How was it tonight?" Wonu asks conversationally across the table. "Ramiro was being weird, right?"

Mingyu shrugs and checks that everyone has food before he starts to carefully pick pieces of meat off the grill Seungkwan has been manning. "Not really, he was just tired. He gets kinda cranky. I should have brought Juan out again tonight. Ramiro will be ready to work next week. I'll just bring him out on uh, Thursday and Saturday. And do Juan on the other three. So it'll be good. I told him to rest up." He chews a bite, then asks Wonu, "What about you? Felipe seemed cranky today too. Think we're working them too hard?"

Seokmin has noticed that Mingyu talks about the horses like they're human friends of his. It's unnerving, mostly because Seokmin doesn't understand it. The two horses he rides on alternating days are named Garcia and Bermudo, and he trained with them for a couple months, and he knows how to get them to move and stop and he supposes he trusts them not to go all crazy and kill him, but that's about as far as his familiarity with them goes.

"Ah, Felipe just has an attitude," Wonu says with his quiet little smile, like something is happening that's funny only to him. "He's just a whiny horse."

"He was mean mugging through the whole second show," Mingyu laughs. "Does he think complaining will get him what he wants?"

"I give in too much," Wonu says, then he takes a big bite of bulgogi.

There's a lot of chatter at the table, and Seokmin is still getting to know everybody, so he sits back and observes for a minute. Minghao and Junhui sit close together and don't talk much, but lean in, listen and smile and laugh so much that they're as much a part of conversation as everybody else. Seungcheol is manning one grill and Seungkwan has the other. Seungkwan is insistently keeping Hansol's plate full while loudly joking around with everybody at the table. He makes everybody laugh all the time. Hansol isn't talking a lot, just smiling along and watching Seungkwan as he recounts his interaction with a Citizen who got too drunk on pineapple soju slushie the other day and almost had to be asked to leave.

At the end of the table, Jeonghan and Joshua are talking lowly about something. It might be gossip, but that's how they always look, and there can't really be that much gossip. Joshua raises his eyebrows and purses his lips, and Jeonghan opens his eyes really wide and kind of cocks his head sideways, and they lean in and talk only to each other, like it's really really important. Funny.

Jihoon is talking to Seungcheol, but then Jihoon goes, "Actually, I don't know. Hey Hyung?"

Mingyu looks over to Jihoon and Seungcheol with a smile, like he's excited to be interrupted. He says, "Mhm?"

"What bits are you using these days?" 

Mingyu says, "Ah, well Juan's really easy, we just use the curb bit they trained him with. The people that trained Ramiro used a weird one, but Jihyo and I are getting him more comfortable with the curb bit too. Sancho hardly needs anything. I could practically send him out alone." He's thoughtful for a second, and then he says, "One of Junhui's horses..." He calls to Junhui. "Hey Jun, Ordoño uses a weird bit, right?"

Junhui nods. He says, "Yeah, we put him in a snaffle with a roller or else he locks up."

Mingyu turns back to Jihoon and says, "Are you thinking of changing something?"

"Thinking about it," Jihoon says. "I think Esteban would do better on something gentler. It's too much right now. Just wondering if you had any expert advice." 

"Not really," Mingyu smiles. "You should try it and let me know. Esteban's been doing great, I bet he'll be good. You two get along really well."

Seokmin thinks he's following along. He knows what the bit is, at least. He says, "That's the part with the chain?"

Mingyu's brow furrows and he frowns at Seokmin for a second, almost like he's worried about him. It feels like he looks at him for a long time before he says, "The bit is the piece that goes in your horse's mouth."

Well, in Seokmin's defense, there's a chain around there somewhere. He definitely knows what he's supposed to pull on. There really can't be that much to say about horses.

Mingyu looks like he wants to say something else, but he just sighs, then he turns back to Jihoon and goes back to smilingly saying made-up words.

So, Seokmin has to admit it. He's noticing, maybe just as of right now, that Mingyu's vibes aren't weird at all. He's a totally nice, sweet, charming, approachable person. People look to him for guidance and approval. He smiles easily, and laughs all the time; he takes things in stride, he's a competent leader, a good hyung, and he's very handsome and very tall and very very chivalrous. Mingyu isn't standoffish, he just doesn't like Seokmin.

It bothers Seokmin a bit. Not enough to get in the way of the fun, but definitely a little bit. Some people say you can't please everyone, but Seokmin usually can. It's like, his thing.

So it bothers him a little bit.

♞

MEDIEVAL TIMES SEOUL: AN UNEXPECTED ATTRACTION

When the Seoul location of North American dinner theater chain Medieval Times opened in July 2018, even the company had its reservations. "We are interested in a one year trial to explore the potential of Medieval Times expanding across Asia," said CEO Perico Montaner at the time.

Now, two years on, the single location outside North America sells out several nights a week, drawing crowds of tourists and locals alike. Representatives for the company have since changed their tune, citing popular culture references to medieval Europe and the location's proximity to Lotte World as potential reasons for the attraction's success.

"Our early success proves that an action-packed, stunt-filled show with a general message of good prevailing over evil is a universal idea, as is the ancient relationship between human and horse," said a representative, who made sure to add that the highly trained, professional staff make the attraction what it is today.

Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament is a longstanding cult attraction with ten locations in the United States and one in Canada, in addition to the newest Seoul, South Korea location. Onlookers are transported to an 11th century Spanish castle, enjoying a four course meal as a cast of characters including knights, villains, and kings joust and swordfight their way to victory. The show has often been praised for its high level of horsemanship and commitment to performing real stunts.

_Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament has shows at 6:00pm on Wednesday and Thursday, and at 5:30 and 8:30 from Friday to Sunday every week. It is located at 600 Garak-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Reserve tickets in advance at medievaltimes.co.kr.  
_

"Okay," Soonyoung says as he turns around abruptly to face Wonu. They have the world's smallest kitchen, so Soonyoung's flaily arm practically slaps Wonu's laptop off the tiny yellow table. "You have to send that to your mom, like, right now. What did it say? The professional staff turn the attraction into...?"

"Highly trained and professional," Wonu says, glancing up from his screen. Soonyoung nods with satisfaction and turns back around to finish concocting a protein shake.

"I feel so cool," Soonyoung says heartily as he dumps frozen blueberries into the blender. "Wonu, did you ever think that you'd be a famous person?"

Soonyoung turns on the blender, so Wonu doesn't answer. He reads the article again. Maybe he will send it to his mom, chip away at her idea that he doesn't have a real job.

Wonu composes his message. Soonyoung finishes blending with a couple of aggressive pulses and yanks the blender off its holster. He comes to the table with two Medieval Times commemorative chalices, one red and one purple with a chip missing on the rim. He dumps the shake, which is the color and texture of wet cement, into the glasses, and holds his up for a cheers just as Wonu sends his text off with the caption, _Article Soonyoung showed me._

Wonu clinks his glass with an impatient Soonyoung's. The chalices are actually nice, so the sound is satisfying. Wonu takes a sip, and Soonyoung downs half of his, and as he wipes the gray mustache off onto his arm, he goes on.

"Really though, do you ever think about it? Sometimes I'm like, _shit_ , so glad I didn't end up in an office, not that I would be able to work in an office, but, like, you know. I think about the people I went to high school with, who are all just doing normal shit, and I feel _really_ lucky."

Wonu nods. He does think about it. He does feel lucky.

"Like," Soonyoung says, "When people ask me. Not like I see people outside of work, but when people have asked me. They always think it's so cool."

Sometimes, or, a lot of times, in the mornings, Soonyoung talks and talks and talks before doing anything else, like he saved up a lot of words while sleeping. Wonu likes it; it helps him wake up too. Gets his brain rolling. He has another sip of his shake before asking, "Who's asked you?"

Soonyoung says, "Oh, now I can't think of anyone. Because you're always there. Oh, like, the noona at the GS25. The night noona. One time not that long ago, you must have gone to sleep right away or something and I was down there and she was like, _what do you and that guy do? You're always here so late._ I was like, one, midnight isn't late. Two, 'that guy' is my _boyfriend_. Three, we're actors slash stunt people at, like, a horse-themed dinner theatre. She thought it was so cool, asked all sorts of questions. I told her I'd get her in for free sometime. I can't believe I didn't tell you that."

Wonu takes another sip of his shake. Soonyoung is pouring himself more already, somehow, as he goes on. "Or like, you know, my parents think Medieval Times is the world's most awesome thing."

"They do," Wonu agrees. Soonyoung's parents are his biggest fans. They come to the show really regularly and scream so loud for Soonyoung that Wonu can hear where they are in the audience. They scream for Wonu, too. They're funny.

Soonyoung says, "And they tell everyone, and everyone is like, _that's dope, your kid is so cool and amazing_."

"Everyone?" Wonu asks.

"Absolutely everyone. Nobody thinks it's lame to do stunts on horses. Which, by the way, I have an idea for my opening routine, so I was thinking we could go over there early today instead of taking a jog or whatever."

"Sure," Wonu says.

"Dope," Soonyoung says with a sharp nod. "Good agreeing, us. I had the dream again where I flip away into the sky and never come down, but this time instead of a pike I did this cute little layout, and it gave me an idea to make my routine even cooler."

"But it's already so cool," Wonu says. He finally finishes his cup of shake as Soonyoung fills up his third.

"Could always be cooler," Soonyoung says very seriously while also swallowing.

In the tiny bedroom, they change out of their sleep shirts and into their regular gym clothes. Soonyoung's always wearing athletic clothes because he likes to have his full range of motion, and Wonu has sort of given up on having a fashion sense after getting so used to wearing a costume for work. He and Soonyoung used to sometimes try to look good when they went out, Soonyoung in excellent makeup and form-fitting clothes and Wonu in... he doesn't even remember. Jeans. They haven't done much of that lately. They see all the same people all the time, and it's a relief, after five nights of stage makeup, not to try sometimes. So Soonyoung puts on track pants and a big t-shirt, and Wonu puts on gym shorts and ties his hair out of his face, and they head to work.

Without Soonyoung, Wonu might not do any extracurricular exercise at all, but Soonyoung can't stop moving or he'll die, so Wonu's picked it up by osmosis. He can't complain about being in insanely good shape, and he certainly can't complain about Soonyoung's body. Wonu never gets buff like that, just strong and lean and sturdy, but Soonyoung's insanely jacked and extremely hot.

Every day that Soonyoung isn't at his other job, they do something before work. Go on a jog or spend an hour at the fitness center in their apartment building, or go to open hours at the nearby gymnastics center where Soonyoung does flips until he's finally tired. It's all pretty fun for Wonu, though he particularly likes coming to work early and having the arena to themselves. It's nice to spend time with his horses under quieter circumstances. The calm moments are when he feels like he's really bonding with them, not when they're performing, under all that pressure.

Today, they find Kim Mingyu already in the barn when they arrive. He's putting up one of his horses. It's like he never leaves; he's even wearing a piratey shirt and his riding boots with his ponytail falling out around his face, so he might as well be in costume.

"You guys are getting brave," Mingyu says cheekily when he sees them coming. "Your schedule clearly says call time is at 4pm, so I'm concerned to see you waltzing in at," he checks his phone, "Ah, 12:52?"

"Give it a rest," Soonyoung laments, flopping around.

Mingyu laughs his big, honest laugh and says, "Just be careful, okay? If anything bad happens before four we'll all get in a ton of trouble."

Soonyoung huffs. "Why are you looking at me? I'm an angel. It's him you should be worried about." Soonyoung does his big squishy smile. "I'd never do anything dangerous, ever, and certainly not before your precious 4pm."

Mingyu looks at Wonu, and Wonu shrugs like he's out of the loop. He says, "I'm just gonna do groundwork with Felipe."

Mingyu nods approval. "I was just tightening up Sancho's traversal. He was getting lazy, but I think we fixed it."

"I was noticing that," Wonu says. "He was not on his mark the other night."

"He's phoning it in. I'm gonna change up his routine again soon so he has to start thinking about it. But for now I'll get some lunch and leave you two the arena?"

"Sounds good," Wonu says. "We'll be careful."

"Thaaaanks, Hyung," calls Soonyoung as Mingyu waves goodbye and heads the other way.

All the actors do eight shows a week with one understudy between them. However, they rotate so that none of the horses usually have to work two days in a row. This means Wonu and Soonyoung each have two horses that they work with regularly, plus occasional training with new horses who are still getting ready to perform.

Wonu doesn't have to, but he likes working his horses. He was never a horse person before this; he's from inner city Seoul, so he just played basketball like everybody else growing up. But over the last couple years, he's learned a lot of basics from Mingyu and the trainers here. More than anything, he spends enough time with Felipe and Ramon that it's good to get to know them outside the context of performing. They have trainers, they have grooms, but at the end of the day, Wonu's the one they need to listen to. And honestly, Felipe has been sassing him a lot, so it's good that Soonyoung suggested this today.

Also, Soonyoung in his element is transfixing. Shameless, he warms up in his shorts right in the sand of the arena while Wonu longes Felipe. Then Soonyoung starts tracing his vaulting routine in the sand while Caspar waits patiently in crossties offstage. Soonyoung is so bouncy and fun; he laughs at himself when he sticks his landings, he adds flourish to his moves. Even on the ground, his routine is impressive, or maybe even more impressive in some ways -- watching him carefully balance down from a handstand to a backbend with the care and sturdiness and core strength that it takes to do on a horse, it's different than watching him at the gymnastics center, always so light and elastic.

"Wonu," Soonyoung calls as he straightens up from his backbend. "Check this out, here's what I want to do with my layout."

Wonu stops Felipe and watches Soonyoung as he gets some momentum before doing a layout with an extra twist that wasn't there before. As usual, he lands in a crouch with an imaginary dagger drawn and a ghoulish, greedy look on his face. Then he snaps out of it, pops up straight with his regular sunny grin, and says, "It's not a lot, but I think the angle is less awkward. This way I can go backwards off the horse and still land facing Alfonso. I usually do the last half-turn after I land."

Wonu gives a thumbs up and says, "Looks amazing. Wanna try it?"

Soonyoung wiggles with excitement as Wonu brings Felipe over to tie him up and leads Caspar out to practice.

It takes just a couple of tries before Soonyoung and Caspar have it down perfectly. Soonyoung leaps from the tall, black horse, hangs suspended in the air for supernaturally long, does a half twist, then lands crouched and light like a cat. Sometimes Wonu really sees the truth of Soonyoung's talent. Not a lot of people are capable of these things. It's like he can fly. It makes Wonu feel sort of special just to know him.

For his part, Soonyoung is grinning and laughing, like it's all easy fun. Wonu has heard stories from when Soonyoung used to compete, the time his gymnastics coach fought a penalty the judges tried to give him for being too enthusiastic after acing a floor routine. But if Soonyoung wasn't so excited, he wouldn't be as good. It all comes from the same place.

When they're done, they have enough time to grab some lunch before they have to be back. They go to the bibimbap place, the reluctant regular lunch spot of all Medieval Times employees by virtue of being the closest fast food. They know Soonyoung and Wonu in particular, but they don't dislike them. It is hard to dislike Soonyoung.

At the restaurant, Soonyoung eats all of his food and some of Wonu's and talks the whole time. He gets gochujang on his chin and tries to lick it off. He gets rice in his eyebrow. Still cute though, or maybe even more cute when he's messy, cheeks puffed full of food, looking a bit cross-eyed.

Wonu checks his phone and has a reply text from his mom. It says, _Well written article._ _Is Soonyoung well?_

"My mom asks how you are," Wonu says as he looks up from his phone at Soonyoung, who is determinedly desiccating the ice in his cup through his straw.

Soonyoung says, "Aw, hi Mrs. Jeon. I'm good!"

Wonu smiles a little and types, _Soonyoung is good. He says hi._

When they're almost done, Soonyoung huffs a couple breaths like something is bothering him, and then he says, "So I have to go to the studio before work tomorrow. Because, did I tell you Nayeon-noona's going on vacation?"

"No," Wonu says. Not that it matters much.

"Oh, well, she is," Soonyoung says. "And I'm gonna, um, cover her classes."

"Oh, cool," Wonu says. "How many is that?"

"Five," Soonyoung says, then he takes a big bite of Wonu's rice.

"For how long?" Wonu asks. That's a lot of classes, when Soonyoung already teaches two on top of working full-time.

"Three weeks," Soonyoung mumbles, still chewing, looking elsewhere. Then he swallows, and, too fast, like he expects Wonu to be mad, he says, "Are you mad?"

"No," Wonu says. Obviously not. He's basically never mad. It is a lot, but, "You don't have to ask me permission to do stuff."

"I know," Soonyoung says, but then he still explains. "I'm the only one who's available, so if I don't, they have to cancel, which would look bad for the studio. I can handle it."

He's squirming a little, so Wonu says, "You can handle anything." Which is true. Soonyoung can handle things that most people couldn't dream of. It's dazzling.

Soonyoung is a lot. He's more than most people. There's the anxiety he sometimes causes, the reckless careening forward. But that's part of why he's so exciting and vibrant and fun. The guy doesn't give a shit, he just wants to do flips. He just wants to jump absolutely as high as a human can jump. He wants to do handstands on horses, teach seven dance classes on top of twice-nightly gymnastics routines. Honestly, if he wants to do it, it's his right.

Soonyoung breathes out in relief. "Well, that's not until next month. Anyway, here's something crazy. If you put a frog on its back and pet its little belly, it becomes hypnotized. You should try that with me sometime."

Wonu smiles. "I hope it works."

Soonyoung nods seriously. "For real."

♞

Once every two weeks everybody in the cast shows up early in the day to work with the Master of Horse. She’s a lady named Jihyo whom Mingyu has known in some capacity for much of his life, since there are only so many horse people around here, especially around his age. He respects Jihyo because she knows horses, and he looks up to her because she doesn’t take nonsense.

Right now, Soonyoung is giving Wonu a piggyback and trying to do a piaffe. It actually looks half-good, as in, Mingyu can tell what he’s going for even though it looks silly on only two legs. Wonu is laughing so hard on Soonyoung’s shoulders that he’s squawking. Jihyo is going, “Boys.”

Soonyoung makes an eerily accurate horse sound and shakes his head. Wonu uses the shoulders of Soonyoung’s t-shirt like reins and turns him in a circle, cackling.

“Seriously,” Jihyo is saying.

Finally, with a gentle pull on Soonyoung’s t-shirt, Wonu lowly says, “Whoa,” and Soonyoung settles into a stop. Wonu pats his head. “Good boy,” he says, then he makes a show of dismounting.

Everyone’s laughing, even Mingyu, who should be telling them to stop. But Jihyo isn’t telling them to stop either.

So maybe Jihyo tolerates a little bit of nonsense. But still, people listen to her when it matters. She’s giving instructions to Seokmin right now, and everybody’s respectfully settling down. Mingyu is pretty new to being in a position of leadership, so he’s still learning how to handle people like she can. He doesn’t wear the authority as comfortably as Jihyo does. He can be too nice, or, truthfully, too lenient even when he doesn’t feel very nice.

Mingyu actually wanted to be a horse trainer himself when this place was first opening. That’s what he was interviewing for. He has some experience training the Jeju horses he used to work with back in Daegu, and the Quarter Horses he worked with when he moved to Seoul. He never did dressage before this, but just like the Andalusians here, he picked it up pretty fast and learned to love it for the same reasons: it’s challenging, rewarding, beautiful, powerful.

With no dressage background he wouldn’t have been ready to be the Master of Horse like Jihyo, but he’s done jumping, so he still thought he could help. In his interview with Jihyo and the show's director, he tried to explain this, but the director stopped him.

“Are you interested in an acting role?”

“Not really,” Mingyu said. “I don’t have any acting experience.”

“You don’t need acting experience to act,” the director said like it was obvious. He’s a smarmy dad whom Mingyu has never really grown to like, somebody with big ideas and high standards who doesn’t much care for the day-to-day details of a place. But that’s alright; it means he isn’t around much, as long as Mingyu and Jihyo make sure nothing goes wrong. He said to Mingyu, “Sure you’d make a good trainer, but I’d be a fool not to put you in the show.”

“Trainers are as much of the show as actors,” Mingyu tried. He looked to Jihyo for help, but she left him hanging.

“You already have stunt riding experience,” the director said, “And, I mean, look at you.”

Eventually, Mingyu learned that this was the most important thing. The Look. More important, unfortunately, than his stunt riding experience. Even Jihyo seemed to agree, which hurt Mingyu’s feelings a little bit.

Director Park talks about “the look” a lot. When Jongdae quit to go raise his infant son and they had to hold auditions, Mingyu felt like he heard more about “the look” than anything else. But that was alright, because they’d make a balanced decision with the director focused on that, and Mingyu focusing on experience, trainability, dexterity, attitude, posture, etc.

After all the auditions, they were torn between two candidates. Mingyu had a good feeling about a guy named Kyungsoo, who may not have had the pep that Jongdae had once brought to the role of Orange Knight, but who sat a horse quite well for an inexperienced person. Director Park, however, was obsessed with hiring Lee Seokmin.

Mingyu tried to fight it. He had both of them come back out and tried to show the director how Seokmin sat on his saddle like a toddler, yanked the reins like he thought he’d fall off if he didn’t. “He’s terrified,” Mingyu said, referring to the grimacing horse. Then he looked to Kyungsoo, who was stoic and measured.

“That one looks bored,” the director said. “At least Mr. Lee is exciting to watch.”

“Anxiety and excitement aren’t the same,” Mingyu muttered. But they hired Seokmin anyway.

And this is what brings him to today, at the bi-weekly training with Jihyo, watching her help Seokmin struggle up a mounting block.

She’s being patient with him, but Mingyu can see the way he yanks on the reins, the way Bermudo looks exhausted already. Seokmin kicks him so hard to get him to canter, when all it should take is a quiet word. It’s like he’s finger painting when he should be using the finest brush to make light strokes; it really could take so little to control a horse so smart and willing.

Seokmin yanks the reins to the left like they’re a steering wheel, and Bermudo, rolling his eyes, turns hard while still going fast. Seokmin almost gets thrown off, and he screeches and dramatically makes Bermudo stop. He laughs fearfully and says, “Okay, that was _so_ intense.”

Jihyo starts to talk to him kindly about his signals, but Mingyu is getting sick of it. He says, “He did what you asked him to do.”

Seokmin looks over at Mingyu innocently, small in his t-shirt on the beautiful, patient rust-colored stallion who is still collected and ready. Mingyu doesn’t want to be mean, but it’s so hard to keep watching him do this. He thought it would get better, but it’s been three months since Seokmin was hired, and every day, he still looks like it’s his first time on a horse. It’s so embarrassing. “The look” means nothing if you’re that stiff in the saddle, that timid.

Thankfully, Jihyo butts in, in her kind and straightforward way. “A little less pressure,” she says.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Seokmin tells her earnestly, ignoring Mingyu altogether. “I’m working on it, it’s just really hard in the moment.” He starts dismounting, which at least he’s getting better at. “When he’s going that fast, it’s like, _aaa!_ He’s so tall.” Seokmin laughs, this big wide grin that he does all the time to make everyone love him.

Jihyo laughs too. “Totally,” she says easily. “You’re doing great. It’s coming to you.” She has the nerve to wink. “It’s not easy for everybody, but you’re working hard, so you’ll be fine. Do you want to clean him up?”

She holds out the reins to Seokmin, and he starts to take them, but Mingyu says, “I’ve got it.”

“Oh, you don’t have to,” Seokmin says nervously. “I’m getting better at—”

“Nope,” Mingyu says shortly, like he’s doing a favor. “No no. I’ve got it. I don’t need any extra training anyway.” He takes the reins and and is relieved to leave the crowd and go to the staging area with Bermudo, who deserves soft hands and understanding.

Later on, after Jihyo has checked in with everyone and the horses are eating and resting before being tacked up again, Mingyu is sulking in Juan’s stall. Juan is the younger, hotter, and more fun of his two stallions. He has big bright eyes and loves to do a good job, so he and Mingyu have always gotten along. He is comforting Mingyu; he’s leaning a bit and holding out his face for pets and kisses, looking at Mingyu with concern and understanding. 

Wonu finds him there and stands in the doorway. “Um, hey Hyung.”

“Oh hey,” Mingyu says. He smiles up from feeding Juan a secret peppermint like nothing’s wrong. “What can I do for you?”

“Oh, nothing,” Wonu shrugs, hovering a bit timidly in the doorway, squared shoulders silhouetted. “I’m cool. Are you cool?”

“Of course I’m cool,” Mingyu says. “I’m very cool.”

Wonu says, “Just wondering. You seemed super tense at training.”

“Ah, that’s nothing,” Mingyu says. Truthfully, it’s something, but Seokmin’s issues are not objectively as big a deal as it feels like to Mingyu. He doesn’t know why it bothers him so much. But even if Mingyu was starting to get used to finding the good in everybody, and everybody finding the good in him; even if he felt finally at home among this group of people until the moment Seokmin showed up, things like this happen sometimes. Nobody likes everybody always. There have to be exceptions.

But Mingyu also knows that as the Head Knight, it’s his job to treat everybody with respect, which means working out his problems respectfully, and it means not gossiping. Yeah, that’s the example he ought to set. That’s the way he wants people to know him. 

So then, effectively, it is nothing.

“You know what, I think it’s just an off day. Thank you for coming in here though, Wonu,” Mingyu says honestly.

Wonu huffs out a laugh. “Um, glad I could help?”

“Me too. How are you doing?”

Wonu shrugs again, silhouette stiff. He says, “I’m good,” but he doesn’t sound like he means it.

Mingyu gives Juan a final hug around the face and leaves him, leads Wonu out into the hall. He says, “Don’t lie.”

They walk out of the barn toward the backstage area, and Wonu sighs a few times, and Mingyu waits until he finally says, “I think I don’t want to talk about it, but I appreciate you asking.”

Mingyu doesn’t get to demand that Wonu be available after refusing to do that himself, though he thinks it’s probably different. He says, “Okay, but remember you can talk to me anytime. About anything. I'm here for you." 

“I know,” Wonu says. “But I think I should figure this one out on my own.”

“I get it,” Mingyu nods. “Me too, with my thing.”

Jeon Wonu can sit a horse as well as anyone Mingyu has ever seen. He picked up the proper posture right away and has only ever improved. When riding, he’s limber, proud, and graceful. It’s like he was built for that and just never knew it. On the ground, offstage, out of costume, he’s as awkward as a hanging skeleton. He juts out a hand to shake for some reason and says, “Good for us.”

“Good for us,” Mingyu decides to agree, returning Wonu’s weird handshake.

“Well, Soonyoung wants to get lunch before doors, so I’ll see you later,” Wonu says.

“Have fun,” Mingyu says. “Be back before—”

“Four. Will do, Hyung. See you then.”

♞

Subject: Updates (:

From: kmg@medievaltimes.co.kr

To: pjy@medievaltimes.co.kr

Hi Director Park!

Just wanted to update you since we haven't talked in a week or so.

Everything is going smoothly at the moment. All the actors are in good shape. So are the horses except for that older stallion Hector who we are trying to retire soon. I'm sure you have talked to Jihyo about this -- she's in contact with the training barn about bringing in 1 or 2 new horses when that ends up happening. Right now he is performing just once a week or so.

Sorry for asking again, but have you thought about my request to hire a few more actors? Things have settled down after Jongdae leaving (I talked to him the other day by the way, the baby is doing great), and with the new configuration I still think we could use two full-time understudies. I understand what you said about paying people who aren't performing, but if everyone took two weeks off a year, not to mention unforeseen circumstances, the understudies would actually be performing most of the time. I think it would be a good investment for the team. Thank you for thinking about it.

I don't need anything else but it might be nice if you stopped by this week, even just to watch the show. It's hard to tell all the time if I am keeping it as tight as you need me to. But of course I am doing my best.

Thank you once again for the opportunity. I hope to show that I can handle my responsibilities well.

Let me know if you are planning to come in so that I can be prepared for you.

Regards,

Kim Mingyu

♞

Seungkwan had been a Serf at Medieval Times for almost a year before he couldn’t be mature about it anymore. Three Knights had come and gone, and he had not even been considered, despite making himself available every time, and despite the clear company literature that promised _internal growth potential_.

The last time had been the worst; Chanyeol, who played the Green Knight, had quit without notice, or maybe been fired (Jeonghan had some theories). Minghao had been standing in every night for two weeks while they found someone new, and Seungkwan kept hearing about how hard it was to find the right person on absolutely no notice. But Seungkwan was, like, right there. He e-mailed the director offering to stand in, and he went to talk to Master of Horse Jihyo about it as well, but he caught her while she was busy injecting a really fussy horse in the neck with something, and the horse was acting kind of scary, so she barely paid attention to him. She said, “Seungkwan, I’m sorry, but not right now.”

Like he was _wasting her time_? He had never felt so small. That night, when he was done angry-crying, he told Hansol, “They’re never gonna give me the chance I deserve.”

Hansol, bless him, is brave. That’s the only way he can have been dating Seungkwan for this long without going crazy. They both know that, but it doesn’t make Seungkwan any better at dealing with having his opinions challenged. Hansol said, “Babe, do you think a Knight would sit around and wait for what he deserved?”

Seungkwan looked at Hansol like the space between lightning and thunder. _Sit around?_ Well, excuse him. Seungkwan serves the same food to the same nasty tourists every night, and for what? No recognition, no internal growth. A year of working alongside _Joshua Hong_ and nothing to show for it. No horse. No applause. No cool helmet. No glory. He couldn’t wait forever. Oh. But that was what Hansol had just said. “Actually, wait. You’re right.”

“I think the chivalrous thing to do would be to —”

“Go in there and demand the position,” Seungkwan finished confidently.

Hansol looked a bit nervous. He said, “Uh, well. I was going to say _earn it_.”

Unfortunately, Hansol is right about a lot of things. Maybe he was right when he said that Seungkwan had never ridden a horse before. And that he was, uh, _hot_ , as they say about horses with active flight responses, overreactive and volatile. Whatever, it’s true. It’s all true. Seungkwan really thought it would be as easy as swinging his tight little pilates body over the back of one of those bad boys and making it run around.

A year into his secret riding lessons, he now knows that he was naive. There’s a lot that goes into riding a horse well. It’s more than just wanting very badly to ride a horse and have people clap for you instead of swiveling their stupid necks around you to see the action as you hand them King Alfonso’s Finest Sponge Cake.

Maybe it’s been good for him in more ways than just quantitative skills. Maybe riding the same horse every week, getting to know her, what makes her comfortable, how she likes to be handled and how she acts when she's comfortable has taught him something about communication. He’s not the gentlest person in the world, okay? It’s true. He just isn’t. But maybe he’s learning to be a little gentler. Maybe he’s learning to be a little more patient with the process, maybe he’s kind of having fun learning something new, something hard, even without the promise of glory?

Well, he still wants the glory, but the rest is true too.

One important aspect of Seungkwan's newfound chivalry is _not bragging_. He doesn't want people to know he's taking lessons, because everyone already thinks he's a teacher's pet, and this is more important to him than just hearing that he's good. A pat on the head and a little empty praise won't satisfy him this time. He wants to be a Knight.

So the only people who know he's taking lessons are Hansol and his mom, otherwise he's dead to the world for two hours a week.

It feels good to do something for himself, but that doesn't mean it isn't hard to keep quiet sometimes. After all, Joshua and Jeonghan are his closest friends, but they're his worst enemies too, and they like to know everything. They both complain about their jobs all the time, the stupid little tunics they have to wear, but Seungkwan knows that if they went anywhere else, they'd have to learn new gossip, and the only thing they hate more than their jobs is working hard.

One slow evening just after doors, between serving soju daiquiris to European tourists (whom Seungkwan hopes enjoy this interpretation of their culture), Jeonghan leans over the tavern counter and says, "Kwan."

"What?" Seungkwan says. He had been zoning out, leaning and staring at a coat of arms mounted on the wood-paneled wall of the tavern.

"Don't act already mad," Jeonghan scoffs. "I'm not trying to harass you."

"Set a precedent, then," Seungkwan says.

"Oh my god. I was gonna invite you over but I guess you don't want to come."

"Yes I do. When?"

"Tuesday."

Seungkwan makes a face. "Oh, well I can't on Tuesday."

"Why not?" Jeonghan asks immediately, like Seungkwan's Tuesday is his business.

Seungkwan says, "I'm visiting my mom." But he says it too slow, and Jeonghan narrows his eyes.

"No, you aren't." Jeonghan hovers.

"Yes, I am," Seungkwan says. "Why do you think everyone is lying all the time?"

"Defensive," Jeonghan coos. "I don't think everyone is lying, I think _you're_ lying. What are you doing on Tuesday?"

"Seeing my mom," Seungkwan says again.

"Oh my god, you are _lying_."

Seungkwan rolls his eyes. "Okay bye, I have to go earn my tips," he says, starting to head out to the stands so he can start buttering his Citizens up early.

"This isn't over," Jeonghan says, and in the same motion he tosses his hair and says to an approaching Citizen, "Hail and well met!"

Jeonghan doesn't have a lot of follow-through, but if it involves money or information, he's on it. So he doesn't forget that he thinks Seungkwan has told a lie, and after the shows, he and Joshua both approach him as he's busing his tables.

"Why can't you go to Han's thing on Tuesday?" Joshua asks with big eyes as if he's innocent.

Seungkwan doubles down. "Because I'm _seeing_ my _mom_ ," he says, like they're stupid. "You guys are insane." 

"No, you're right," Joshua throws to Jeonghan behind his shoulder. "He's lying."

"Why would I lie?" Seungkwan asks. "If I was gonna lie, I'd say I was doing something cool. Here's me lying. Aw, Tuesday? I can't, I'm hanging out with Taeyeon!"

Jeonghan rolls his eyes, but then he has an idea. "I got it," he says as he pulls his phone from the back pocket of the jeans he's wearing under his crimson Medieval Times Serf tunic. "Texting Hansol."

"Don't," Seungkwan starts, and then it's too late.

Jeonghan's eyes narrow. "Why not? Because he won't be able to corroborate you? Because you're _lying_? I thought we were friends, Kwan, what the hell?"

Ugh. It's not that Jeonghan is smarter than Seungkwan, it's that he's meaner. Seungkwan says, "Okay, fine."

Jeonghan is waiting.

Seungkwan mumbles, "I have a horse riding lesson."

"I'm sorry," Jeonghan says evilly, drinking it in. "What?"

"I have a horse riding lesson," Seungkwan enunciates. "Happy?"

"Oh my god," Jeonghan says, "So you can be a Knight? Seungkwan, that's adorable. Wait, why would you lie about that? Wow, why can't _Hansol_ know?"

"Quit it. Hansol does know, he's just on orders not to tell anyone else." Seungkwan is feeling uncharacteristically shy. "I don't wanna talk about being good. I just want to learn how to be good."

"Wait, that's so cute," Joshua says blandly. "How long have you been doing this?"

"Almost a year," Seungkwan admits.

"Wow," Jeonghan whispers. "You've kept it to yourself that long? That's amazing."

"Please don't tell anyone," Seungkwan says. "I can feel my chance coming, and I don't want to mess it up."

"No, no," Jeonghan says. "I won't tell anyone. I want you to have your moment, too."

"Thanks, Han," Seungkwan finally says. Jeonghan is crazy, but he isn't actually the world's worst friend. Still, "If you guys aren't gonna help me with these dishes, you can go now."

"Ew," they say in unison. Joshua says, "I already did mine, I'm clocked out."

"Bye then," Seungkwan says, back to eye-rolling, waving over his shoulder as he turns around to clean his tables. 

♞

Seokmin and Seungcheol met when Seokmin was in his second year of college and Seungcheol was about to graduate, during a production of the musical _Excalibur._ Seokmin played King Arthur, and Seungcheol was Merlin, so they spent a lot of time together.

They bonded over a mutual love for the source material. They thought it was so cool, all the filth and vengeance and darkness and the heavy, ugly armor. They found out that they not only both loved the King Arthur legends, but they had both watched Game of Thrones before the subtitles even came out, just hunting down torrents and trying their hardest to parse out the wacky English.

“I had no clue what they were saying,” Seokmin said one day backstage around a mouthful of convenience store kimbap.

Seungcheol laughed and agreed. “I had no idea what was going on, at any point, but I was totally obsessed.”

“Honestly, that’s kind of how I live my life,” Seokmin cackled. “So it was just like a more badass version of every day.”

Seungcheol snorted. “Give yourself some credit, King.”

Seokmin loves acting on stage no matter the genre, but it turned out that Seungcheol really found his niche in the Medieval thing. Seokmin went to see him in a couple of plays set in the Joseon dynasty, dramatic and political and sinister and fun. He got some good attention for his compelling performances; he once sent Seokmin a tiny write up on a Seoul arts website that talked about how he had the “unique ability to pull his audience backwards through time.” Honestly, Seokmin thinks Seungcheol is kind of a freak about it, but in a cute way. He’s really good at the old-timey formal speech and has this ancient-sounding voice he uses. Basically, it makes sense that he was hired as the King before Medieval Times even opened. You’d think a history buff like him would get mad at all the inaccuracies — the cherry-picked pieces of European symbolism and the Korean food and the zippered costumes and the long, loose wig King Alfonso wears that is accurate to nothing but looks really cool. But nah, Seungcheol is just happy to get to use his Joseon voice, and that is why he and Seokmin get along.

It was Seungcheol, obviously, who told Seokmin they were hiring a Knight. They hadn’t talked much in a year or so because Seungcheol was really busy and Seokmin was constantly between plays. He had just closed one that was written and directed by this awesome local woman about a lady who moves out of her parents’ house and starts seeing ghosts. It flopped, but it was probably the best show he’d ever been in.

Seungcheol reached out to him at the right time; something was happening to Seokmin which he didn’t really like. He was actually starting to get tired of hustling all the time for almost no money, the romantic idea he’d grown up on as a little musical-loving child. To be a stage performer is to be hungry, he knew. But he sort of thought it was metaphorical. Like, hungry for good art. Hungry for that big break, that one perfect moment on stage. But nah, it just meant hungry. Maybe being hungry in romantic New York City would have been more fun than in a one-room apartment in the furthest southwest reaches of Seoul, far away from the people he loved, spending all his time on the train in and out of Gangnam for rehearsals. But probably, it would have been exactly the same.

It just, well, wasn’t as much fun as he thought it would be.

If Seungcheol had texted him two months earlier, when he was working on his last play, he’d have said he was busy making stage history and had no time for dinner theatre. But the text came right after his rent was deposited, so he had a different perspective.

Seokmin is glad he auditioned. He’s really stoked that he got the part. It’s so much fun and very silly, but it’s also hard and takes a lot of focus, for everyone, every time, even though the actors all know their parts. It keeps every show a little fresh, a little different. Nobody ever gets that glazed-eye thing that sometimes happens after a million performances of the same show, every interaction always happening in exactly the same way. Seokmin _hates_ when that happens.

This is a really good gig. Not only does it pay well, Seokmin just likes it. Being a Knight is _fun_ , especially the Knight who is all about enthusiasm. Through the Orange Knight who burns bright like the sun, Seokmin has become excited about life again. About acting. It’s awesome!

The riding-a-horse thing is still coming to him, but Jihyo has confidence in him, and that helps. The other Knights talk about how long it took them to learn, too. Junhui was an acrobat before this, and he still says learning to ride confidently is one of the most challenging things he’s ever done. Because it is scary sometimes, but you can’t be scared.

That’s Seokmin’s biggest issue. He’s scared, so he pulls too hard, so he’s stiff, so he can’t chill out, and apparently the horses can tell, and it makes them scared too. So, they’re less relaxed and more tense themselves, which makes Seokmin even more scared. Still, Seokmin tries his hardest every day. That’s what the Orange Knight would do, and that’s what he believes in. One day he’ll be great.

Today, he’s having a little trouble reaching his potential greatness. Garcia is just in a _mood._ He’s decided to be a bad horse who does whatever he wants, and Seokmin is very afraid of that. In their intro scene, he goes completely off his mark and does his own thing for about ten seconds before he listens to Seokmin at all. After the scene, Seokmin goes backstage and hyperventilates until Junhui and Minghao find him.

“What am I supposed to do?” Seokmin asks them as they hover over him. “He’s gonna try to kill me.”

“Wait, wait,” Junhui says in his smooth, quiet voice. He’s holding his helmet under an arm and his head is sweaty. They have to be ready to go back on in two minutes. “You lost control for a second, that doesn’t mean he wants you dead. He’s not angry, he just doesn’t think you’re in charge.”

“How can I be in charge? He could trample me to death in front of an audience if he wanted to.”

Junhui and Minghao look thoughtful, and then Junhui says, “But you fall off him every day.”

“It’s different when it’s a stage direction,” Seokmin says. As long as it’s planned, he’s fine with a lance splintering against his breastplate, with rolling off a horse into the soft sand of the arena. That’s what they’re _supposed_ to do. Garcia running around like a wild animal is _not_ what they’re supposed to do.

“You are in charge,” Junhui says flatly. “But if you don’t take charge, he won’t know that.”

Seokmin feels like he’s gonna throw up. He doesn’t know if he can go back out there.

Junhui says, “Just try it for me in the joust. Believe that you’re the boss, and treat Garcia like he knows it. I’ll be right there.”

“I don’t want to joust,” Seokmin whines, but actually, he doesn’t really mean it. When he isn’t scared of being carried off to his death, he loves the joust. He loves the part where he rides around the arena really fast and raises an arm to solicit applause, and the cheers of the crowd follow him in a huge, glimmering circle. He likes the moment just before the Yellow Knight’s lance connects with his chest, where the whole world zooms into the moment, the point growing larger until it rams against him, shatters, and throws him to the ground. He’s not afraid of stunts, he’s not even afraid of the idea of getting hurt; occasionally, he hits the ground wrong, or the lance connects a little far to the side and bruises him. He knows there are worse risks than that, but it’s not what he’s afraid of. He’s afraid that he doesn’t have control. That Garcia is a _creature_ , not a prop, with his own thoughts. That horses are smart, and have their own ideas, and Seokmin has still not figured out how to communicate with them, a thing that seems so easy for everyone else.

Speaking of people who can talk to horses, Mingyu storms into the hallway where Seokmin and Junhui and Minghao are huddled and wastes no time in snapping. “Seriously, guys, come on. Thirty seconds. I can’t keep track of you right now.”

Honestly, Seokmin thinks Mingyu should have stuck with talking to horses, because he isn’t very nice to people.

Junhui holds a hand out for Seokmin and says, “Try it?”

Seokmin says, “Yeah. Yeah yeah. I got it, Hyung. Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Junhui says. “Just do it.”

And they run back to their places and mount their horses and go to joust.

Junhui is right. Seokmin keeps hearing that horses respond to the rider’s attitude. He keeps hearing that Garcia runs around like a bad crazy horse because Seokmin is too timid, or else too harsh, but rarely confidently in control.

This time, in the joust, he really focuses on it. He just pretends to be the Orange Knight. He decides that the Orange Knight grew up around horses, began riding as a toddler at his manor in the Spanish countryside, and has never once felt afraid. The Orange Knight is a man with confidence; perhaps blind confidence, as he loses the tournament before anyone else. He really thinks he can do anything. He really sees himself as competent.

And it works. Something clicks between Seokmin and Garcia that hadn’t clicked before, and the horse listens better than he ever has. It’s a new sensation; Seokmin can _feel_ Garcia understanding what’s happening. He can feel him responding to leadership. He can even feel Garcia relaxing.

Junhui’s lance hits him square in the chest, and Garcia braces as Seokmin falls to the dirt. He steps gracefully out of the way as Seokmin draws his sword for a final duel with the Yellow Knight.

This part he can do with his eyes closed. Stage combat is one of Seokmin’s top five most beloved things in the world, alongside fried chicken, applause, boys who are bad for him, and his perfect noona who taught him everything he knows about being nice and cool.

Junhui is really good at stage combat, too. They’re supposed to stick to the choreography, but lately they’ve started to change it up a little, keep it spicy, keep each other guessing.

In the end, it’s always the same. Junhui disarms Seokmin, pushes him to the ground with the tip of his sword, and mercifully claims victory without finishing off his opponent. Seokmin thinks it’s so much fun.

Offstage, while King Alfonso makes his next speech between scenes, Seokmin is telling Junhui how well his advice worked. “I think something finally made sense just then,” he’s saying, unable to keep the grin off his face, while Wonu and Jihoon and Chan come over to listen.

“I saw it,” Junhui says, “You were a different rider out there.”

“Did you get it?” Jihoon asks. “I knew you’d get it.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what happened,” Seokmin says excitedly to Jihoon. “I just pretended to know what I was doing and Garcia was like, _oh, I better listen to this guy_.”

“Proud of you,” Jihoon says, and that’s the kind of thing he only says if he means it, so Seokmin feels all warm and special and smart for the rest of the night.

It’s Sunday, so they all meet up at the barbecue place before parting for the weekend. Seokmin’s been in the show for a month now, so he’s really starting to feel at home here. This group is a real team, closer than any other show he’s been in. That makes sense, because every other show has had a closing date. But here, everybody has a stake in getting along, because this is the only thing any of them have time to do for the foreseeable future. It’s become Seokmin’s entire life, but that rules. He’s busy and active, strong and getting stronger, and having fun all the time, and some of these guys are his best friends now.

Today has been really good. Maybe it was a fluke; probably when he goes back to work next week, Garcia will have forgotten this moment and Seokmin will have to brave up again. But he really felt something tonight. He knows he can do it now. That harmony between horse and rider, he finally gets it.

He’s just happy. He’s happy he’s here with his friends. He’s happy everyone has been so kind to him, given him a chance to grow and prove himself, believed in him even though the job is tough and risky. He feels really lucky. Gosh, it’s his whole heart. His whole heart feels huge. Looking around at Soonyoung, the funniest person he’s ever met with the most unrelenting work ethic; Wonu, weird and goofy yet incredible at everything he tries; Seungcheol, one of his best and oldest and most interesting friends; Jihoon, with his quiet confidence and total control and his honesty; Junhui, patient and wise, and Minghao, quiet and warm and apt and sure. Even Seungkwan has this thoughtful competence about him, and Jeonghan is just and righteous, and Joshua knows everything. These guys are real Knights.

Seokmin can’t help it. “I love you guys,” he says. “I love being here. Thank you for letting me be part of your team.”

“Whoa!” Soonyoung pipes in immediately. “Thank you for _being_ part of the team.”

“Yeah, you’re pretty cool,” Jihoon says. “The guy before you, he was talented, but he didn’t have the, like, like…”

“Je ne sais quoi,” agrees Chan.

Next to Seokmin, Wonu says, “That’s French for,” and then he does this weird little self-satisfied shrug.

Soonyoung cackles. Seokmin beams. Junhui says, “We all think you’re great,” and Minghao nods in fervent agreement.

That’s when Mingyu gets there.

Genuinely, it’s weird. Seokmin tries to give him a chance every time. He tries not to assume that Mingyu is already mad; carrying those assumptions around doesn’t help. But the face Mingyu makes as he enters the private room they fill up every week, it’s like, it’s like he’s upset to see Seokmin getting along well with people.

It’s one thing for an antisocial horse boy to be upset that Seokmin isn’t already a good rider. That makes sense; Seokmin has been frustrated with himself for that, too. He is _really_ trying, and he’s going to prove that he can hold his own. But what is this disgruntled face that Mingyu is making at overhearing people say that they _like_ Seokmin? Honestly, it hurts his feelings. Mingyu is basically the director of the show, since the actual director is never there. He’s the guy that everybody goes to when they need something. He knows everything about the show and everything about the horses, so he’s constantly running between departments trying to be everything to everyone. Still, he’s graceful under pressure, he looks gorgeous every night, he’s smart and approachable and absolutely beatifically kind, giving from the depths of his endless well of generosity to _everyone_ except Seokmin.

It’s the only thing about this job that sucks. He can’t really even talk about it to anyone else, because they don’t believe him. “Sure,” Wonu said once, “Mingyu-hyung can be a bit stern, right? Especially backstage, he’s juggling a billion things. Sometimes he can be short when he’s trying to keep things going.”

“It’s not really that,” Seokmin said. “I think he doesn’t like me at all. Just look at him next time we’re all together. He either ignores me or side-eyes me or tells me I’m wrong.”

“I just,” Wonu said, furrowing his brow like he was trying to word something properly. “I don’t think he’s a petty person. He’s nice to a fault, you know?”

But right now, Wonu is looking at Seokmin with some kind of wonder, like he finally gets what Seokmin has been trying to say. Mingyu slides into his seat and goes, “What’s up, guys?”

He’s still got the cute lisp, he’s still the glowing, broad, long-haired, pirate shirt wearing image of a perfect Knight, but he doesn’t look like he’s very happy.

Everyone notices, and the awkwardness settles over the table. Seungkwan is letting beef burn on the grill. Jeonghan and Joshua are staring at Mingyu like hungry birds. Junhui is looking at Seokmin with a polite question on his face. But Soonyoung is the most socially brave person who has ever lived, so he cuts the silence. “Hi Mingyu-hyung,” he chirps. “Caspar bit me, wanna see?”

♞

Still, as days and weeks go on, Seokmin begins to feel more at home here than he ever has anywhere before.

He tends to move through groups quickly: hanging out with cast members of shows he's in or coworkers at the short-term jobs he holds down when things get really tight. He knows everyone, but he's not very close with anyone, he's realized. There are so many people who would be excited to run into him on the street, but the only people who called him on his birthday this year were his dad, his perfect noona, and this guy Seokmin had sort of been dating months earlier who tried to turn it into a booty call. But maybe now Seungcheol would call him on his birthday. Give him some advice, like he knows so many more things about life, even though he's barely older than Seokmin. It's nice to have a real friend, to have gone through different things with someone.

Today, Seokmin is weaponizing that bond in the dressing room as he begs Seungcheol to let him try on his king wig.

Seungcheol is suspicious. "I'm supposed to keep it nice," he says. "Not that I don't trust you, but..."

"Hyung, I'm your friend," Seokmin is saying earnestly. "I would never mess up your king wig."

He wants to try it, like, so bad. He keeps thinking about it. He just wants to see. Seungcheol can probably see his eyes sparkling, the purity of his intentions, so he finally rolls his eyes and hands it over. "Be nice to it," he says. "I only have one."

"Okay," Seokmin sings as he crushes it onto his head without preamble. He arranges it for a second, but he doesn't know where the front is.

Seungcheol laughs and comes to Seokmin in the center of the room. He spends a minute helping him fix it, tucking and yanking strategically with a determined glimmer to his shiny, Kingly eyes until he decides it's good enough.

"How do I look?" Seokmin asks when Seungcheol steps back, whipping his head around.

Seungcheol looks challenged by that question. "You look..." he starts.

Seokmin turns to face the mirror and hears exactly what Seungcheol isn't saying. On Seungcheol, the long straight hair looks completely royal, even without the rest of the costume. Graceful and historical. On Seokmin, it's, like... a different kind of ancient. Caveman-y. He can't keep from laughing as he tries to straighten his posture, make a serious face, tip his chin up. He looks stupid as hell.

He's cracking himself up trying to make sense of it. He looks like a horror movie character. He was sort of thinking he'd look even more handsome, but nope. He's making noises at himself in the mirror and Seungcheol is cackling behind him when Soonyoung and Wonu come in.

"Whoa," Soonyoung says. "Seokmin, you look crazy."

Seokmin whips around really fast so the wig flips dramatically and makes a loud goofy noise at Soonyoung. Soonyoung laughs so hard he has to sit down, and Wonu silently snickers behind him, and then Soonyoung reaches out with grabby hands and says, "Me, me, let me try it."

Seungcheol weakly tries to stop them, reminding them that it is his _only_ wig, but Seokmin is already gently yanking it off and handing it over to Soonyoung, who jams it onto his head just as gracefully as Seokmin did and does not accept help fixing it. So it sits on his head lopsidedly and his white-bleached hair sticks out, and he looks in the mirror and makes himself screech with joy.

"It's perfect," he shouts. "I need one. Wow. _Wow_." He turns to Wonu. "Babe, look."

"I'm looking," Wonu snickers. "You look like your sister."

Soonyoung crunches up his face a little and shrieks, "Oppa, quit it!"

"That's not what she sounds like," Wonu chokes out as he laughs so hard that he's got to hold his guts in.

"Then you do it," Soonyoung says, passing the wig on, holding it like a cat between himself and Wonu. It definitely looks more haggard than it did two minutes ago, but Seungcheol has given up at this point. Seokmin will help him brush it after, if he wants.

Soonyoung is helping Wonu smoosh the wig onto his head. He's more careful with Wonu than he was with himself, or so it looks, until he gives Wonu a little slap on the face with a sound effect for good measure.

Wonu straightens up. He clears his throat. "Soonyoung, shut _up_ ," he whines in a high voice. "Some of us are studying to become lawyers, not that you even know what that means."

Soonyoung is laughing so hard that he's not even making sound.

Wonu says, "If you interrupt my studies to tell me a frog fact one more time, I'm telling mother."

"Oh my god, Wonu, you have to stop, you're too good. You're too good. It's like she's here."

Wonu goes to say something else, but Soonyoung is screaming laughing before he even opens his mouth, and finally Wonu can't keep from laughing anymore either, so he just sits down.

"Has your sister been here?" Seokmin asks as Soonyoung messes with the wig on Wonu's head a little more.

"Yeah," Soonyoung says. "She acts like she hates it, but she's a contrarian. I think she's embarrassed about how much she likes it."

Seokmin says, "I want my noona to come soon too. I think she'd have fun."

Wonu is looking at himself in the mirror, trying to make the wig lie right. Soonyoung is going, "This is a good style for you," and Wonu is going, "Yeah, right."

Eventually, they pass it to Minghao, who looks like a perfect elf and blinks around at everyone like a baby deer, and Chan, who immediately starts acting like some kind of feral warrior, doing crazy taekwondo in the dressing room until he knocks over somebody's Hot6. Then Seungcheol finally says, "Guys, I'm really supposed to keep that nice," and it gets passed back down to him and Seokmin does help him brush it.

♞

Subject: Hello!

From: kmg@medievaltimes.co.kr

To: pjy@medievaltimes.co.kr

Hi Director Park! Hope you are well.

Things are really good over here. We're keeping it tight as usual. The new Friesian is getting here next week and Jihyo is prepared for that. All the actors are in good shape too, though I am would still really like to hear back about my request to hire a new understudy or two.

Also, Jihyo and I were talking, and we thought that we could use a budget increase, as some of the things we've been using for a while are starting to wear out and I would like to replace them without having to get approval every time. For example we have an actor using a saddle that's falling apart, but we don't have any extras that fit the horse. I want to keep things looking nice and fresh since so many people see what we do.

Sorry for all the requests. I really want to do the best job I can here.

If you come see the show soon, let me know so I can be prepared for you. It would be nice to schedule some time just to sit and talk soon.

Thank you,

Kim Mingyu

♞

It’s the beginning of Soonyoung’s last week covering Nayeon’s classes at the dance studio, and if you ask him? Things are going great. He wouldn’t probably want to do this forever, but he’s having fun proving that he could.

Usually, he teaches two kids dance classes a week, both in the mornings on work days. That’s a compromise he’s made with Wonu, who likes having full days off to hang around.

But this is Nayeon’s full-time job, so he’s covering two classes on Wednesdays, teaching three on Saturdays and barely making it to Medieval Times before they open, one on Sundays, and one on Mondays. Which leaves him pretty much dead on Tuesdays, his only chance to sleep, but also his only chance to make sure he’s ready for the next week of classes.

Wonu’s starting to get pissed, but it’ll be over soon. Sometimes Soonyoung likes knowing how far he can push it.

Unfortunately, today, Junhui and Minghao have approached Soonyoung to talk to him about his choices. Maybe Wonu complained to them about it. That would be fine, Wonu complains because he cares, but it is annoying.

Plus, Soonyoung has heard it all before. Forever ago, when he found out that Junhui and Minghao used to be acrobats in a circus that traveled the whole world, he asked them why they quit. He didn’t understand why they’d give up the adventure of it all, or want to stop doing something that amazed people. He said, “If you _can_ flip, why don’t you?” Soonyoung can’t imagine choosing not to flip. He tried quitting once, and it was not for him.

Junhui said, “Well, Minghao broke his back.”

“Whoa, really?”

Minghao nodded.

Junhui said, “He didn’t get a chance to fully heal before they were trying to get him back to performing. They were gonna start taking money out of my paycheck to cover his board, so he went back early.”

“Now it hurts all the time,” Minghao said impartially, glancing up from a tunic he was mending.

Soonyoung has an ankle that hurts all the time, so he understands a little. But it doesn’t stop him from wanting to push his limits.

Now, Junhui's saying the same thing. “There’s only so much your body is designed to take. Sometimes you should listen to it telling you to stop.”

But it’s not like Soonyoung hasn’t heard that before. He feels a little betrayed by these ex-acrobats, actually. He doesn’t like conversations like this. He’s pissed at Wonu for complaining about him.

He does like Junhui and Minghao, though. What’s not to like about a couple of gentle Chinese circus boys who seem not to have any stories from before they met? Like, actually, they experienced every story he’s heard either of them tell together. He once asked them how long they’ve been dating and they said different numbers. Four, Junhui said. Seven, Minghao said. That’s a big gap, and Soonyoung didn’t even try to get to the bottom of it, because the uncertainty tickled him. They sew their own clothes and wear dangly jewelry and meditate a lot. And you would think that they’re quiet because Korean isn’t their first language, but Soonyoung thinks they’re just like that, because they don’t talk to each other in Mandarin much either. They just look at each other a lot and send messages over a telepathic link, he guesses.

Soonyoung admires them a lot. Soonyoung and Wonu like to be together pretty much all the time, but they don’t know each others’ minds like that. He wishes he understood Wonu better sometimes. He looks up to it. Maybe after four and/or seven, they’ll be like that too.

What he does _not_ look up to is Junhui sitting across from him backstage and acting all wise about _Soonyoung’s_ body.

“Have you considered modifying your vaulting routine this week?” Junhui asks.

“No,” Soonyoung scoffs. “I’m not doing that. I want to show the audience something _cool_. They’re paying like fifty thousand won for this.”

Minghao speaks up in his soft, nimble voice. “You can’t go back and stop sooner.”

Soonyoung huffs. Yeah, he’s sore and tired, but it’s just one more week. They can get off his back. “Okay, I hear you,” he says. “I’m not changing it, but I hear you.”

Then he gets up to go find Wonu, or better yet, someone who doesn’t think he’s stupid for wanting to try his best.

He does end up finding Wonu. He’s just a tiny bit bitter, and Wonu is being a tiny bit bitter with him too. They’ve been bickering the past few days, which isn’t common and hurts both their feelings for longer than they act like it does. Soonyoung suggests that they go to that one storage closet no one ever uses and make out to clear the air, but Wonu says he doesn’t feel like making out. So it must be serious.

Wonu doesn’t look over at Soonyoung that much while they’re doing their makeup, and when they do make eye contact, he doesn’t look like he’s saying anything. Wonu usually says a lot with his face, eye contact with Soonyoung that says he hears the same things Soonyoung hears or sees the things he sees, that he thinks something is funny or out of place or wrong, or, if nothing else, just that he’s there. Soonyoung may not have the magical insight into Wonu’s thoughts that Minghao and Junhui seem to have with each other, but he and Wonu are usually having a conversation. Right now, though? No. Soonyoung is trying to remember what they even argued about this morning. Maybe it meant more to Wonu than just letting off some steam, and he’s still mad about something Soonyoung should remember? Soonyoung isn’t very good at navigating these things, but he _really_ likes Wonu and he _really_ doesn’t like it when people are upset.

There’s no time to pull Wonu aside and really try to talk to him before the show, so Soonyoung tries to fix the vibe instead. He makes lots of great jokes as everybody starts arriving and getting into costume. He doesn’t get anything from Wonu, but everybody else is eating it up. Soonyoung goes on a long tangent about how funny the show would be if they kept everything the same but rode little old ponies instead of big fancy Andalusians. Mingyu laughs until he snorts. 

Finally, there’s only one open seat left in the room, and it’s in the ozony air between Soonyoung and Wonu. Seokmin is like the bad side of a magnet when it comes to discomfort, so he doesn’t even appear to notice as he plops down and starts doing his makeup.

There’s normal chatter around them for a minute. Mingyu checks in with everybody, Jihoon complains. Chan is out this weekend to cram for finals, so Minghao is covering for him, and he’s going over his lines with Junhui. He keeps fumbling the complicated words and making himself laugh all high-pitched and silly. “I swear my vengeance,” he says like there’s a bee in his mouth. Junhui cackles and Minghao squeaks.

Then Junhui suddenly looks very serious and says, “Okay, again… no laughing.”

But then he can’t keep his stern, high-boned face from cracking into a wide cat grin, and Minghao still tries again but can’t get a word out without almost falling over, and Seokmin says, “I think you should just do it like that,” and the vibe is fixed and Soonyoung can finally relax.

Then Wonu says, “Soonyoung, do you have the eyebrow pencil?”

Soonyoung hands it to Seokmin and says, “Can you pass this to my wonderful roommate?”

Seokmin might be a little dumb or overly literal. It’s not a dig, he’s basically a perfect person, completely charming and nice from every possible vantage, but he says, “Sorry, wait, are you guys roommates? I thought you were, like…”

Soonyoung laughs. He misses the glare from Wonu until it’s too late. “Oh yeah, haha, we’re in love. But it's funny, right?”

Wonu stands up suddenly. He looks stiffly at Soonyoung and says, really loudly but not yelling, “Actually, I don’t think it’s that funny.” Then he walks past a bunch of staring eyes out of the dressing room. 

Yeah, oops, bonk. The hindsight really hits Soonyoung right away on that one. Soonyoung started making that joke when he found out that Wonu's mom still called Soonyoung his roommate, and now that he thinks about it, it's not actually funny! Sometimes he needs to be told if he’s being insensitive, and Wonu never told Soonyoung that bothered him. But like, ouch. Soonyoung’s been repeating it for two years.

Well, he’ll apologize as soon as Wonu’s done hiding about it. He really is sorry. He knows he doesn’t think about things as terribly deeply as Wonu does sometimes. And he knows that their families are different, and that Wonu resents that, et cetera et cetera, and Soonyoung doesn’t really know what he’s supposed to do about it, so he just makes sure Wonu’s always invited to all Soonyoung’s family stuff. Well, he’ll do something nice to make up for it as soon as he’s done covering Nayeon’s classes. A Lotte World day or something, where they’ll hold hands and be cute and normal. For now, he’ll just hug Wonu really tight and say that he loves him and all his hurtable feelings, and he’s sorry that he doesn’t think enough with his little tiny amphibian brain, and they’re definitely more than roommates.

When he’s all stage-ready, he still hasn’t seen Wonu again, so he thinks maybe he’s really mad and won’t go back into the dressing room until Soonyoung leaves. Dating coworkers, right? So Soonyoung respectfully goes to the arena to practice his routine a couple times before doors open.

♞

Today, Seokmin decides that he's ready to tack up his own horse before the show. It's partly because he's starting to get interested in knowing how to do it, and partly because he's trying to show Mingyu that he can be perfect.

Like he hoped, when he gets to the barn, Mingyu is already there, brushing out Ramiro's mane. He ignores Seokmin as he approaches, but looks up impassively when Seokmin says, "Uh, hi Hyung."

"Hi," Mingyu says back. "How can I help you?"

"Well," Seokmin starts. "I want to tack up Bermudo today. Can you help me? When you're done? I think I can do most of it, but the bridle has too many straps."

Mingyu looks at Seokmin for a second too long before saying, "Of course."

"Can I watch you do Ramiro?"

"You already are," Mingyu says, not unkindly. So Seokmin plops his butt down on a mounting block and makes sure he understands all the steps as Mingyu does them.

The hostility is still there, but it's a little tempered by Mingyu's palpable gentleness as he works with Ramiro. None of his distaste for Seokmin touches the horse.

He's just about finished, and Seokmin is getting excited to try it himself with Bermudo, when Wonu bursts into the barn. He's visibly freaking out, his face looks wet like maybe he's crying. But he doesn't sound like he's crying when he says, "Mingyu, Hyung I need you. I'm sorry. I need you now. Soonyoung's hurt."

♞

Before every show, Seungkwan counts his plates and bowls and cups and obsessively checks the POS to see how many Citizens are showing up. He can't stop his obsession with doing a good job, being completely prepared, even when his job is handing chicken legs to people.

Like, after two years, he thinks, counting his bowls (121-122-123-124), he could just phone it in like Joshua does. Joshua plays his part as if he doesn't care and makes almost as much as Seungkwan, where Seungkwan looks back and is so embarrassed at how eager he gets. Saying "My Lord" and shit. It's not worth it.

But he is cursed with not being able to help it. So here he is, night after night, coming back like there's nothing else he could be doing instead. Like he's really beholden to this place.

He goes to check the POS again. It's a pretty packed night, it looks like. This show is almost at capacity, which means Seungkwan's got over a hundred seats filled. It's cool though; for all the pre-show fatigue, he's always ready to bring it once people start showing up. It's in the company literature that Serfs are actors just as much as Knights. That sentence keeps him from quitting sometimes.

He's aimlessly clicking around on the POS now, making faces, looking at stats. Sales of the Royalty Package are up this week, specifically the Birthday Package. Looks like he's got three birthdays in his section already. Nice, those groups are always in a good mood. Those kids always beam when he tells them, "At your service."

Joshua bursts into the kitchen, looking around frantically.

Seungkwan starts to say something really clever, like, _lost your nametag again?_ But Joshua zeroes in on Seungkwan and says, "Kwan. Come here."

"What, I'm busy," Seungkwan says, even though he isn't doing anything.

"It's your _moment_."

Seungkwan freezes. He couldn't mean... 

It's not like Seungkwan _wants_ something bad to have happened to someone, but, you know. In the case of an emergency. In the unfortunate event that they need someone.

"What happened?" Seungkwan says as Joshua starts leading him through the kitchen out to the area behind the bar.

"Ask Jeonghan," Joshua says as they push through the door.

Jeonghan turns around quickly and says, "Kwan, it's your _moment_."

"What does that mean?" Seungkwan whines.

"You know how Chan is out so Minghao is already covering?"

"Obviously," says Seungkwan, who can't help but be abreast of everyone's business.

"Apparently Soonyoung just broke his arm."

Seungkwan's stomach drops. He feels terrible guilt for a second, for wanting it so bad. Ugh, but he does want it very badly. "He did?"

"Everyone's freaking out," Jeonghan says. "Doors are in like fifteen minutes. Go talk to Mingyu before it's too late."

Seungkwan takes a deep breath.

Is he ready? Is he, like, really ready? Oh, he's scared. He hesitates. "I don't know," he says quietly.

"What do you mean you don't know? This is the only reason you still work here."

"What if I ruin the show?"

"You won't," Joshua says from behind Seungkwan. "You know the show as well as Mingyu. He'd be _honored_ to have you."

Seungkwan looks between them, first at Jeonghan, who seems genuinely excited for him, and then at Joshua, who seems stressed out that Seungkwan isn't already running. And he decides that if he wants to be a Knight, he has to heed the call when it comes, not when he thinks he's prepared.

"Okay," he says. "I'll go try."

♞

It's a dislocated shoulder. He didn't fall off a horse, he didn't do anything crazy. He was just practicing his routine in the sand and he moved slightly in the wrong direction and it all went the wrong way.

Mingyu finds him curled up in the sand, face hidden, breathing hard and whimpering a little but not flipping out nearly as much as everyone else.

He leans over Soonyoung, careful not to touch, and quietly, he says, "Hi, Soonyoung."

Soonyoung says, "Uuuuhhh."

Mingyu says, "Mina's coming."

Soonyoung shudders in a breath and then quietly says, "Coooool."

Wonu leans over him and says, so gently, fingertips on his back, "Hey, buddy. I'm sorry I yelled at you."

Soonyoung is clearly in so much pain. Into the sand, he says, "It's not... your fault." Then he inhales sharply. "God, it hurts so much."

Mina, the physician, is calm and collected when she arrives. She doesn't even try to move Soonyoung, she just helps him sit up, feels around a little, and puts it back in, even as he squirms and screams for her to stop. 

Then suddenly, he's quiet, and she lets go of him. He takes ten of the most exhausted, heavy breaths, barely able to hold himself up, pupils blown out, sweat-plastered hair glued to his forehead. Then he hesitantly tries his shoulder out, and takes another big breath in relief. And then he has the nerve to smile up at everyone, tear tracks down his face, and say between labored breaths, "Okay. Nice. Crisis averted. Let's um, do a show."

"Like hell," Mina says. "You're off for a month."

"No way," Soonyoung says. "Two weeks."

"We're not bartering," says Mina. "You've needed a break for a while."

"No," Soonyoung says, looking around for help. "No no. No, I'm good. I'm gonna perform." He looks at Mingyu.

Mingyu hates having to do this. He says, "You're not performing, Soonyoung, obviously."

"That's not fair," Soonyoung says wildly. "That's not fair, I'm good. I'm okay." 

Wonu's face is all red and puffy. He goes to help Soonyoung up and says, "Let's go to the dressing room."

"I'm gonna perform," Soonyoung nearly sobs as he lets Wonu lead him away.

Mingyu takes a deep breath.

Crap. Okay. So, no Duke. That's okay, Minghao can...

Shit, no. Chan is already out this week. He has finals at school, so Minghao's covering him.

Okay. Okay.

Minghao can cover for Soonyoung, and Junhui can cover for Chan, and they'll perform with five Knights. No Yellow tonight.

Okay. Yeah. "Hao," Mingyu calls.

Minghao comes up to him, smiling his big smile like he knows things are bad. "You're the Duke tonight, and we're gonna put Junhui on Green."

Minghao nods agreement. Mingyu says, "Great."

Minghao hurries off to go get ready for that.

Okay. It's fine. They're good. The show will go on. Minghao will make a great Duke, as long as he believes in himself.

Mingyu really hopes Soonyoung is okay, emotionally. It's good that Wonu is there with him. He hopes Wonu is okay, too.

Ugh. Maybe Wonu shouldn't go on stage either.

No, that's insane. They can't be down three actors. They'd have to cancel the show, and Mingyu doesn't want to do that. They've never had to do that before.

But maybe Wonu shouldn't have lines tonight, since he's clearly really upset. Maybe they could put him on Red, and Jihoon can be the hero.

No, Jihoon explicitly doesn't want lines.

But Seokmin is an actor. He probably already knows the part.

Okay, yeah. Mingyu says, "Seokmin."

Seokmin jogs up to him, attentive and ready. "Hi, Hyung."

"Hi. I'm switching you and Wonu tonight. Do you know his lines?"

Seokmin takes a huge breath. "I challenge you to fight for the Honor of Spain," he says in a commanding voice Mingyu didn't know he had.

"Great," Mingyu says. He doesn't like Seokmin at all, but at least his Black and White Knight won't be weeping on stage tonight.

Great. Settled. It'll be a crazy show, but they'll get through it.

But then Minghao comes back up to Mingyu. Mingyu says, "Hi, Hao. How can I help you?"

Minghao says, "So, actually."

Mingyu says, "Yes."

"I don't know if my Korean is good enough to be the Duke."

Mingyu knows for a fact that it is good enough, but Minghao doesn't have to do it if he doesn't want to. It's a hard role anyway, huge shoes to fill. Mingyu says, "No problem. Do you want Blue, and I'll do Duke?"

Minghao looks relieved. "I'd be more confident in that, yeah."

"No problem. I'm just happy you're here to cover."

Minghao goes off again, and Mingyu takes as deep a breath as he can.

Well. There will be some flubs, but it might be okay. At least everything is figured out. At least everyone has their place.

Mingyu realizes he has to talk to Minghao again; the rest of the Knights can keep their colors and just change their roles, but Mingyu can't just go out in his regular blue and expect to look evil. He's on his way to the dressing room to ask Minghao if he has anything in Mingyu's size when the Serf Seungkwan runs up to him.

Breathless, he says, "Hi, Mingyu-ssi."

"Hey, Seungkwan," Mingyu says. He is trying to be patient. "How can I help you?"

"Um. I heard you're taking a Knight out of the show since you lost two actors."

Mingyu nods.

At least Seungkwan is walking with Mingyu and talking fast. He says, "I can fill in for the last Knight."

"Oh, Seungkwan, I don't know," Mingyu starts.

"No, I really can." He takes a huge, quavering breath. "I've been taking lessons for a year. I know the show as well as anyone. Please give me a chance. I'll sign the waivers."

"You know what," Mingyu says, resigning himself to the most insane show they have ever put on. Hoping this isn't the night Director Park chooses to come by. "Yeah. Fuck it. I'm going to ask Minghao about costumes right now. Come."

"Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Mingyu-ssi, thank you. Thank you so much."

"You can call me Hyung, and don't thank me, okay? Just make me proud. I'm gonna put you on my horse Ramiro. He's solid, but reactive, do you know what that means?"

"The mare I've been practicing on is really hot too."

Mingyu's not disappointed. "Where have you been taking lessons?"

"Gwangjin Riding Club," Seungkwan says confidently.

"No way," Mingyu says as they get to the dressing room. "Do you know Dahyun?"

"Yes! She's my teacher!" Seungkwan beams.

"She was my first kiss," Mingyu says like he's telling a secret.

"Thought you were gay."

"I am," Mingyu says. "But I'll put in a good word if you kick ass tonight. Hey Minghao?"

Minghao looks up from where he's lacing up the front of his shirt.

"I need something gross to wear tonight. And Seungkwan," (he pushes Seungkwan out in front of him), "is gonna be filling in for the Yellow Knight, so he needs to wear something too."

Minghao does his bad-things-are-happening smile again. "We open in 20 minutes," he says.

Mingyu smiles back. He is getting fired tonight. "I am extremely aware of that."

♞

Before Soonyoung leaves for the hospital with Mina, Wonu spends a moment with him alone.

Soonyoung is sitting on a curb outside, the air humid and heavy and the sun half-set. He’s sweat-plastered and puffy and slumped and hurting now that the adrenaline has worn off. It’s strange to see him like this, all his muscles deflated, so small without the strength and power and wind. A person too small for his body. He’s okay, though, just tired, though even in sleep he usually looks more alive than this, always kicking and fighting through the night. 

Wonu feels like shit and can’t even say anything, because Soonyoung has to go see a doctor directly and Wonu has to go fight… well, he doesn’t know who now, since Soonyoung won’t be there. He has to go fight the bad guy.

He feels so guilty. He was the one who stressed Soonyoung out about what he could handle. He was the one who was tired of Soonyoung being so cranky and got cranky back, and then yelled at him in front of everyone minutes before he got hurt. Soonyoung didn’t even understand why Wonu was so upset, because Wonu hadn’t even told Soonyoung about it. Because he’d already told Soonyoung about it too many times, and he thought it would be good to just get over it this time. So, while Soonyoung’s schedule had been making him irritable and weird, Wonu had been walking around for the past four days with a conversation pounding in his head, churning in his stomach and making it hard to be thoughtful with Soonyoung. On the phone, his mother had asked him again, “Have you saved up enough to move out of that apartment yet?”

“I don’t want to move out,” Wonu had said again. “I like living there.”

Again, she said, “You’re too old to share such a small apartment with another boy. How are you spending the money I send?”

“I’m saving it,” he said again, and tried to tell her again that he doesn’t really need it, that he works very hard and is paid well for what he does, but she didn’t let him finish.

“Saving up for a new apartment? Well, I couldn’t afford to give you a full deposit, but I could help with some, if you found a nice place. How much do you have saved now? I can help you search.”

Wonu was so tired of repeating the same things like lines in a performance, but he just couldn’t say it outright. He said, “I live with Soonyoung on purpose, mom. I don’t want to move.”

“In such a small apartment,” she tsked, not deviating from her side of the script. “And too messy. Too many things on the walls. You’re 25 now, you shouldn’t be living like a student.”

“I like it,” he said again. “I like Soonyoung.”

But she just kept going. “I’m going to start looking in the area,” she said. “And I’ve still got my eyes out for jobs.”

It was worse, he thought, not to be heard or seen, than it would be if she were upset about something.

He didn’t tell Soonyoung about it this time, because the last time he told Soonyoung about it, Soonyoung said, “If you never tell your parents, it’s not their fault for not knowing.”

But if Wonu shared a bed with a girl, this wouldn’t be a conversation. He shouldn’t have to announce it, like, with heralds and scrolls, for people to know. Soonyoung thinks that Wonu is embarrassed, but he isn’t. He just doesn’t want to be forced to feel special, for better or worse.

But none of that actually matters. He got so caught up in being upset about it that he fucked up with Soonyoung, who is the whole reason. The whole reason it’s okay to be uncomfortable about some things. Soonyoung, who Wonu really loves, who is going to the hospital now. Wonu feels like shit.

Soonyoung breaks the swampy silence, in a voice more hollow than his own. “I should have let Nayeon just cancel her classes. I really thought it was my job to do it for her.”

Wonu feels really small, looking at the mass of headlights as they pass and not at Soonyoung. He mumbles, “I’m sorry,” and it hides nothing, so stuffed-up and wet.

Soonyoung sighs and turns a heavy head to look at Wonu. His eyes are red and puffy, his stage makeup all fucked-up and smeared and tear-tracked with two funny blank spots above and below his eye from where his scar prosthetics got peeled off after everything. His hair is a wreck, sticking up and plastered down and stirred up. His hurt arm is delicately folded in his lap, his other arm gingerly supporting it. He says, “I love you.”

Wonu says, “I love you, Soonyoung.” Which is a fine place to leave it for now, when they both have things they need to go do. He leans in to press a kiss to Soonyoung’s soft little lips, something gentle to last until later. Soonyoung presses in. He opens his mouth against Wonu’s, and Wonu responds, a bit sickly and desperate, until Soonyoung winces away in pain.

“Sorry, sorry,” he says, eyes squeezed shut. “I need to get some pain pills.”

Wonu nods. “Good luck. I uh. I have to go perform.” Then he laughs, because that sucks.

Soonyoung says, “Help me up,” and holds out his good hand, and Wonu pulls him, and Soonyoung squeezes it as he stands. Then Mina walks over to them and looks at Soonyoung expectantly, apologetically.

Wonu can’t help but lean in and give Soonyoung one more kiss on the cheek before turning back toward the building.

Inside, Mingyu finds him immediately. “Hi bro, are you good?” he asks. He’s wearing a weird iridescent black cape instead of his tunic, and he’s slicked his hair back much more severely than the loose way he usually wears it on stage, with dark makeup around his eyes and cheeks painted to look sunken. Like a Halloween vampire, but like everything, he wears it well.

Wonu takes a deep breath. “I’m good.” He tries to say something else but just says it again, and tries to sounds more like he means it. “I’m good.”

“Great,” Mingyu says, big understanding eyes. “I switched you and Seokmin to take some pressure off you tonight,” he says. “Does that help?”

Wonu sighs. “Yeah. That’s great. Thank you, Hyung. That’s really cool.”

“No problem,” Mingyu says as he pats Wonu on the shoulder. “Okay. I have like a million and one things to do, so I’m gonna run, but if you need me. I’ll drop whatever I’m doing.”

“Thank you,” Wonu says. He realizes he lost track of time. “Doors are open, right?”

“Yes,” Mingyu says with a bit of a crazed look. “20 minutes to showtime.”

“Yikes,” Wonu says.

“Yikes,” Mingyu agrees with a firm nod and a furrowed brow. “See you out there.”

♞

All things considered, it’s fine. Mingyu thinks, if he were a Citizen, and he had never seen a horse before, or good theatre… If he were under eleven years old, which is, honestly, the target demographic of this audience, other than all the freaks in their 20s who work here already, he’d be having a great time. So that’s something.

But Mingyu can’t help but pay attention to the truth of it. Cues are meaningless, lines flubbed, three people ride out for a joust. It’s no one’s fault, it’s just a stupid night. He’s just a stupid Knight.

Whatever, the jousts go fine. Even Seungkwan’s joust with Jihoon, something Mingyu could never have prepared himself for allowing to happen. Seungkwan does great, but Mingyu’s heart is in his throat the whole time. Waiting for this poor waiter to get killed.

Mingyu has never been under this kind of pressure before. As soon as he realizes it’s too late to call it off, he thinks he might really throw up. But then, instead of throwing up, his cue comes, and he has to ride Juan out in a totally different way than he’s used to, fast and mean, and then make him rear up and then jump off and shout at the King in his scariest voice.

“This isn’t the last you’ll see of the Duke of Galicia,” he tries with a big frown and his shoulders all square. He thinks he’s less convincing than Soonyoung, even though he’s bigger and can pretend to be imposing when he really wants to.

Then he rides off and apologizes to Juan and thinks he might throw up again, but it still doesn’t happen, so all the bad stuff stays inside him.

The show continues on in its fumbling, wholehearted way. There are a lot of talented people out there, a lot of people who know what they’re doing, who are committed to making this as good as it can be.

Still, Mingyu is incredibly overwhelmed by the cacophony around him. Even dealing with the missing Serf somehow became his problem, because the waitstaff manager thought he was pulling one over on her and wanted him to answer for it. Which, on a normal night, he’d be happy to help her find a solution for. But tonight, he laughed like a crazy person and said, “I don’t know, see if Seungkwan’s boyfriend is here.”

So, that’s another thing he messed up. He’s impressed with Seungkwan’s performance, though. The guy is really not missing anything. What a brave and forthright way to step up, even as small as he looks in the cast-off Yellow tunic from a Knight past. Mingyu will try to keep him, if he ever has any say in anything ever again.

No, everybody’s doing their best, and Mingyu realizes eventually that no one is going to die, and he feels so grateful for his team, and he takes his first real breath since Soonyoung got hurt and that helps him think, so he takes another ten.

Then his cue comes, and he and Juan ride out again, and Mingyu sacrifices Green Knight Junhui to the Champion of the Realm, and it truly is not until the very last second that the clouds part in Mingyu’s frazzled mind and he realizes that he has to fight Seokmin for glory.

Seokmin is standing firm. His posture is beautiful, his head high as he regards Mingyu. His shoulders are broad for his narrow frame, because he’s strong. His determined eyes are sharp under his shining helmet. He wears an Orange tunic with a fiery sun emblazoned across the chest; he holds one hand on the hilt of his sword; the other holds his shield ready. He is the hero. He isn’t afraid.

Something happens to Mingyu as he jumps off his sweet horse and approaches Seokmin for their battle. Something he has never experienced before. In this moment, he feels evil. “A pity you killed my new servant,” he shouts, deranged. “I had only just gotten him.”

There’s a crackling moment of static electricity between them. Mingyu draws his sword, and the metallic slide of it is the only sensation, in his hands and his ears. A heartbeat. Then Mingyu charges forward, and he fights Seokmin for real.

It’s just so hard, he thinks as he meets Seokmin’s sword with real strength, not just for the stage. Mingyu is just having a hard time. He just wants to train horses, and yet this whole show is teetering on his ability to make good choices for other people. But at least he’s good, right? At least people respect him. At least he’s good enough that, as long as he does his best every moment of every single day, people listen to him. Mingyu slams his sword into Seokmin’s, and gets a jolt of satisfaction at the fear that jumps like flame in Seokmin’s bright eyes when he realizes that Mingyu isn’t joking.

But Mingyu wonders, if it’s about hard work and earned respect, then what is Seokmin doing here? He can’t even ride a horse, yet everyone thinks he’s so good, so great. Everybody thinks he’s nice and Knightly and special.

Mingyu shoves and hacks and swings at Seokmin as sparks fly between them in firework cascades. All he ever does is try to be good, and he hasn’t been able to do it with all his might. Yet Seokmin, foolish and annoying, has fallen into it like he was born to be loved.

Seokmin is fighting back now, a new determination on his face, focus to his sword, but Mingyu is stronger. The force of their blades slamming together again and again makes his teeth shake, rings in his ears.

It all makes Mingyu so mad. He only has this one thing going for him. He feels like a failure, and he feels mean, and he feels stupid, and he knows he’s wrong, and he hates Seokmin. So he tries to win.

It’s fine, Seokmin can take it. He’s great at stage fighting, and, though he looks like he desperately needs a cue, like he’s terrified, he holds his own against Mingyu’s best. Of course he does. So it’s fine.

Seokmin tries to slide his sword around Mingyu’s and disarm him, but can’t, and their blades lock between them. Seokmin’s knees are bending with the effort, but Mingyu is towering above him, shoving. He presses in with all his strength until Seokmin, panting and wild and afraid, has to kneel down. Then Seokmin starts to get the upper hand for a second, then Mingyu pushes him down again, slams him hard into the dust.

And then Mingyu remembers where he is. That he loses here. He stands over Seokmin for a few panting, wild breaths, then lifts his sword to hold under Seokmin’s chin. Mingyu avoids looking directly into his tear-filled eyes and spits the line. “Some Champion you are.”

Finally, deflated, he lets Seokmin finish the fight. Vanquish him. He said what he needed to say.

When Seokmin comes to him in the barn after the show, Mingyu is still feeling quite sorry for himself. Usually it helps to hang out with Juan, but Juan is a little too frazzled himself after that show to be emotionally available, so Mingyu is just standing there, wondering if he ruined his relationship with his favorite horse on top of everything else. It would be so like today, for even the horses to turn against him. Wrong, it would be so like today for Mingyu to have done something so irreparably unkind that even his horses knew him for a monster.

Seokmin tears through the hall and storms up to him, in shorts and a t-shirt but still in his stage makeup, which makes him look really intense. "What the hell?" he says, so loud that one of the stallions screams behind him, and then another.

"What?" Mingyu snaps back. If they're not being nice anymore, then they're not being nice anymore.

"You tried to kill me!"

"If I had tried to kill you, you'd be dead," Mingyu says darkly. "I tried to _beat_ you." 

Seokmin takes a shuddering breath like there are tears in his chest, but none of them spill. "It's not your job to beat me. You're the villain."

Ouch. It feels real when Seokmin says it.

"I just want to know," Seokmin says, holding himself at an even temper, "What your problem is with me."

Mingyu doesn't say anything, and Seokmin begs angrily. "Tell me what it is. I have tried _so hard_ to be good at this job. I know I'm not a great rider yet, but I'm getting better. You see that, right? You have to see that I'm improving. What do you hate so much about me?"

Mingyu doesn't know why this is what he says. "People like me because I'm good at my job."

"Okay?" Seokmin says. "And?"

"People like you for no reason."

The crackling between them is dead, the barn too quiet, and Mingyu has no excuse. Seokmin whistles. "Wow, that's really mean."

Mingyu huffs out a breath.

"Everyone says you're nice, but you're _mean_."

Mingyu can't even think of what to say. He's having trouble even existing.

Seokmin looks really disappointed. He starts to go, but before he does, he points a finger and says, "For the record, people don't like you because you can ride a horse well. It's because you're a really great person and everyone trusts you. So maybe you should think about that next time you scare the shit out of somebody on purpose in front of a live audience."

Yeah, Mingyu deserves that. He lets Seokmin go.

Mingyu is still standing there alone figuring out what to do next in his life when Seokmin comes back.

"Do you want to get skewers with me?" Seokmin asks. He still sounds mad.

Mingyu wipes an eye. "Yeah," he says weakly.

"Do you need to do anything with your horses?"

Mingyu shrugs. "I can leave it to the grooms one time," he mumbles.

"You've had a big day," Seokmin nods sternly.

Mingyu makes a blubbery sound. "Today was really hard," he says.

"I think we did pretty good," Seokmin admits, just a little softer, but still dark.

"I mean, no one died," Mingyu sniffles. "Soonyoung almost did."

"He'll be fine, Mina-noona said. Full recovery," Seokmin says as he starts to lead Mingyu back through the barn.

Seokmin grabs a couple makeup wipes and his backpack from the dressing room and waves goodbye to Jihoon and Minghao. Mingyu gets his jacket and follows Seokmin. He can feel people looking, but whatever, everyone loses sometimes. He'll talk to them tomorrow, if no one fires him before four.

♞

YE OLDE PART TWO

"Alright, nice stretch! Now let's stretch the other one, like this." Seokmin demonstrates by pulling his knee back and wiggling a little for emphasis. "Every Knight knows that stretching is imperative before every fight. Come on, pick up those legs! Wow! Very cool!"

The kids in the arena are hanging onto Seokmin's every word, following him with starry eyes and doing exactly as he demonstrates.

"Alright, now let's windmill those arms. Come on, windmill ‘em!”

Mingyu narrowly stops himself from rolling his eyes. Seokmin is just so… _Seokmin_.

Just to look at something else, Mingyu heads over to grab the stashed box of wooden swords. He doesn't pass them out until Seokmin is done saying, "Okay everybody. We are going to hold our swords just like this until we get more instructions, right?” He plunges the tip of his real sword into the sand of the arena to demonstrate. “Us Knights are always extremely careful with our weapons."

Maybe he glances over at Mingyu when he says that, maybe he doesn't. It doesn't matter. Mingyu starts handing out the swords and all the kids are really good, except these two little boys in the back who try to fight and get visited by Jihoon, who is very straightforward and very scary, even though he's not that much taller than some of these ten-year-olds.

Mingyu is trying to be normal, but after last night, he wishes he had just told Seokmin not to come in for this today. He was gonna text him, _turns out we have enough people to handle the field trip, you can just show up at your regular time._ But no, he had to be _responsible_ and _not petty_ and he had to let things proceed as planned. He had to choose now of all times to stop making dangerous, bad decisions and be the bigger person.

Now Seokmin is being excellent with children along with everything else he can do better and more gracefully than Mingyu, and it's ruining what is usually his favorite day. Mingyu loves talking to kids. He loves being a Knight that can set an example, that can say something that a kid remembers, holds onto. He loves being out here in his uniform and being someone that people can respect. Maybe he's the one who shouldn't have come in. 

The class breaks off into groups of ten or so, shuffling off on their own into clusters of friends, fixing their paper crowns and chattering loudly, and each Knight gathers their group in one corner and gives a little stage fighting lesson.

Mingyu, in his corner, makes an effort, and he finds heart to put in it, just like he always does. As long as he sort of cheats his body in one direction, he can't see Seokmin, and he doesn't have to think about guilt. He's showing the kids how to properly hold the hilts of their swords, how to swipe them through the air against imaginary enemies, and he's thinking about only that, and he's setting the example he wants to set.

"Excellent," he says, "Now let's try it the other way."

Does his voice sound weaker? Less convinced of itself?

"Great job everyone. You're all extremely strong. You think you're ready for something more advanced?"

Toward the end, a kid asks him, like he's not getting his money's worth, "Mr. Knight, will we get to fight each other?"

"Knights don't fight each other," Mingyu says thoughtfully, his stock answer. "But if you see an enemy, let me know, and we can fight it together."

After the field trip kids leave, Jihyo finds Mingyu in the barn and insists on taking him out for lunch. He's pretty miserable about it, but he's tried to say no to her before, and it hasn't ever worked.

He knows she wants to talk. They don't really hang out outside of work, and her tone made it sound less like a question than an order, albeit a friendly one.

His hunch was right; once they're sitting in the half-outdoor food court by the river with their tteokbokki, looking a bit out of place with their barn clothes and their hair pulled back thoughtlessly among the well-dressed people, she wastes no time. Like him, she's always sort of working. "Well Mingyu, I want to talk to you."

"I figured," he says. He assumes he's in trouble, maybe even fired. Not that she's his boss, but Director Park might have asked her to deliver the news, since they're friends and he respects her.

"Don't pout," she says with a kind smile. "I just want to talk to you as a friend. About work, but still. As a friend."

"I'm sorry I messed up so bad," he says quickly, before she asks. "All of it. Not taking care of Soonyoung better, putting Seungkwan in. The um, fight."

"Yeah," she says in a sort of motherly way. "The swordfight. That was really fucked up."

She pauses to let him respond, but he doesn't have anything to say. No excuse, nothing clever. Just cowardly stuff, not worth saying. He fucked up so bad. He takes a bite.

She says, "Well, it was actually great theatre, I don't think it was as bad as you think. But I've been pondering it. You, Seokmin. Your job."

He glances up from his plate at her. "You _are_ firing me." She's gonna give Seokmin his job? She can't do that.

"We're equals, Mingyu. I just want to talk." She puzzles at him for a second before saying, "Last night, I couldn't stop thinking about how much, when you got hired, you didn't want to be Head Knight."

He didn't, but he tried his best anyway, up until last night. 

"I know you think it was mean of me to recommend you for the role. Punishment or something. Or a test."

Mingyu says, "The look."

"Yeah, whatever, fuck that," Jihyo says. "The look is nothing without the heart behind it."

"That's what I think," Mingyu says.

"That's why you're up there," she tells him, like she's proved a point. "It's not because you're handsome, it's not even because you know horses. It's because everybody trusts you to take care of them. Because you do what you say you're gonna do, you don't make excuses." She chuckles. "Okay, so maybe it is because you know horses. You're consistent. You're a great Knight and a great hyung and an amazing leader."

It would make him feel so warm and beloved to hear that if he didn't hear the _but_ in her voice. It would make it all worth it. "I want to talk about Seokmin, though."

"Yeah," he says. Seokmin, the proof that Mingyu is actually weak. That none of those nice things are actually true.

"Why are you so jealous of him?"

Mingyu's gaze snaps up, a rice cake halfway to his mouth. "Jealous?"

"Yeah," she says obviously. "You're very threatened by his presence."

Mingyu does a weird, vague shrug. "Ah, I don't think it's that," he says. "It's, um, the thing where he's so confident, but has no expertise."

"No, it's not that," Jihyo counters easily. "He's never been a half terrible horseman, he just had to learn. So did Junhui, if you remember. So did you, once. You have endless patience for that kind of stuff."

"I guess," Mingyu says, his face feeling hot.

"Can I tell you what I think?"

"Okay," he says.

"I think that you think that he doesn't have to work very hard to have the things you have. I think you think he's taking something from you."

Mingyu rolls his eyes. "I don't think he's taking anything, but I do think he doesn't have to work hard."

"You think he's stealing nothing from you?" she prods. "Not _Nicest Boy At Medieval Times_? Not _Everybody's Favorite_?"

Mingyu's face is _really_ hot now. He swallows a lump the size of a whole rice cake.

"Here's how I see it. And you know I see everything. Seokmin shows up. He's as handsome as you are, and everybody loves him immediately, because he's extremely friendly and has excellent people skills, which is something you feel you lack. He's also extremely comfortable on stage, which is something that doesn't come naturally to you. He brings people together like you do, but he didn't have to prove anything to them first. He just believes that he belongs, and you don't. You feel like you've worked your ass off your whole life just to be respected by a handful of people, and you think he's taking that away from you."

Mingyu stares at her with his mouth half-open for what must be twenty seconds before he can even say, "Um."

"Am I right?"

Well. "Maybe a little."

"Nobody's upset with you," she says. "I just wish you could see what everybody else sees when they look at you. You're not this like, shy awkward person. You're not a weird barn kid anymore, you know? You're, god, you're incredible out there, and everybody hangs onto every word you say. I don't have that power like you, to speak quietly and the room gets quiet enough to listen."

Jihyo knows some things about Mingyu that he doesn't talk about a lot. They've had late nights at the barn to get honest, cleaning stalls on their last legs of consciousness. She told him one night that he'd changed a lot from the kid from Daegu who didn't seem interested in anybody, so much that she might not even recognize him now. "Not just because you got tall as fuck. It's the attitude."

He agreed with Jihyo. He had changed.

He'd never really had any friends growing up, he told her once in a rare, exhausted moment, late at the barn. He only felt comfortable around the horses he helped take care of, so he just stuck with that. He told her about the barn where, as a kid, he obsessively worked off his lessons and then some and then some more, until they started paying him instead. He didn't have a great home life, mostly raised by an aunt and uncle, and as a teen he didn't know what to do with himself when he was figuring out that he was gay; he felt very, very alone among other people and only really understood by the horses he spent his time with.

Jihyo knows that Mingyu used his work as a refuge from being an outsider everywhere else, but in doing so never learned how to deal with being anywhere else, or being an outsider. He always knew on some level that he was gonna grow up to be a weird person, and he didn't even want to try to make it work.

But, she also knows that during that the last two years, being thrust into this role and just pretending to have the confidence it takes to manage something so hard, it's the first time that he's ever been surrounded by people who loved and wanted him.

As much as he didn't want to do it, once he got the hang of it, he found that he had some strengths. Working with horses for fifteen years had turned him into a person who was patient, and calm under pressure, and good at solving problems on the fly. And he found that people really liked that about him. People trusted him, and he didn't have to act bossy or be strict for people to look up to him.

That was amazing. Mingyu, who had never exactly had a human friend before, was suddenly surrounded by a whole group of people who thought he was the absolute coolest. They thought the things he knew about horses were cool. They thought he could do cool things. They listened to his advice.

Most days, Mingyu still doesn't know what they thought they were doing leaving him in charge. He doesn't like having to make choices for other people. He doesn't like being responsible for them. He feels kind of humble and stupid a lot. But being a Knight is pretty cool.

So it does all feel a little bit unfair.

"This is all I have," he finally squeaks out.

"Oh Mingyu," Jihyo says, motherly again. "You could do anything if you had the confidence in yourself that you have in everybody else." Then she adds with a wry little smile, "Well, except Seokmin."

"Yeah, except him," Mingyu says, smile returned. He feels like he's been crying, but he hasn't been. He's just been staring into his bowl.

"I just want to tell you that he can't take anything from you, and he doesn't want to. You're on the same team. You'd be stronger together. I think you have a lot in common, too, much more than you think you do. You both have this enthusiasm that I love. You like hard work and you like outdoing yourselves. I think it would be really cool to see you working together. I think you two could achieve some really cool shit."

"Yeah, maybe," Mingyu says.

"You're worthy of your place and everybody knows it. It's not as precarious as you think it is. Yeah. I recommended you for this position because I thought you would be great for it. And you have been, and you are. You're the Head Knight for a reason, stupid."

That means something to Mingyu. He says, "Thank you, Jihyo. I'll try to remember that."

"You should." Then she huffs out a big breath and slaps her thighs like she's gotten it out of her system. She says, "Hey, have you met my horse?"

"Is it the mare you had? What was her name? Candy?"

"Ah, Seoltang, no, I had to sell her a couple years ago. I can't believe you remember her."

"I remember every horse," Mingyu says, grateful to her for letting him go.

Jihyo laughs. "Of course you do. No, her name is Ari. When can you come meet her?"

"Tomorrow?" Mingyu says.

"That sounds great," Jihyo agrees, and then she's pulling up pictures and they are talking about the thing that's easy, which is nice even if everything else is hard. 

♞

The next day, Mingyu gets to work three hours early, just to fill his time with something other than his thoughts. He's catching up on some side tasks, he's giving a couple horses baths, he's conditioning some leather he's been meaning to get to. He's trying to distract himself, but it isn't working very well. It's just giving him more time to think.

He's been considering what Jihyo said. He's been considering it a lot, but he isn't sure exactly what he thinks of it yet. He supposes he mostly feels stupid.

He supposes that he realizes now that the reasons he's been upset with Seokmin have been wrong.

He's starting to come to terms with it: a lot of the reasons Mingyu has been upset have actually just been things he's jealous of. In seeing that, the pretense of it has sort of crumbled.

Yesterday afternoon, Mingyu was in the dressing room with everyone, and Seokmin was telling a story. It was about something that had happened during a show he was in before this, something with a prop; Mingyu wasn't really listening, he was paying attention to how everybody else was listening.

Mingyu resisted it, has been resisting it. The urge to gather in his glow.

But that's what it is. Seokmin isn't stealing any energy or limelight, he's creating it all himself. Of course people gather to him, right? He makes eye contact with everyone, he's bright and hilarious and kind. He draws people in.

Mingyu has that energy too, in a way, though it's different than Seokmin's. Not so sunny. He isn't so energetic, but he does try to hold people up. To listen well, to say the things he means.

He saw it for what it was right then, watching everyone listen to Seokmin talk. He really is jealous. There's nothing to hate about him, and all the things that freak Mingyu out about him are things that Mingyu admires in anybody else.

Like, when Seungkwan came up to him asking to be a Knight, terrified yet determined to throw himself into a turbulent situation, Mingyu was so proud. It made him respect Seungkwan so much. But when Seokmin does things like that, Mingyu thinks he's groveling.

Or, when Soonyoung fought so hard against being sent home after dislocating his shoulder. That struck Mingyu as a very determined thing to do, thoughtful of all the people he'd be letting down by leaving, even if it was insane. But when Seokmin tries to stay late to help clean up, Mingyu thinks he should give it a rest.

And, Jihyo was right again. When Junhui was struggling to learn to ride horses, Mingyu watched him improve day by day. It was inspiring, and Mingyu felt Junhui's successes like his own. Minghao, too, though Minghao came to it much more naturally than Junhui. Mingyu thought, well, these guys have never been around horses. How can they be expected to know? But where was that patience for Seokmin?

Mingyu felt threatened. He does feel threatened. It's turned him into somebody he doesn't want to be, cold toward somebody who truly doesn't deserve it.

As it turns out, he's good. Seokmin is a good person. He deserves to be treated better, and Mingyu hates that.

Mingyu's deep in his roiling mind when Wonu finds him. He's mindlessly rearranging tack where it hangs, as if he or Jihyo ever let it get disorganized in the first place.

"Ah, Hyung. I hoped you'd be here," Wonu says. He's dressed in his street clothes, like a high school gym uniform, hair wet like he just took a shower.

"Wonu, hi," Mingyu says, perking up effortfully. "You don't have to be here. We get Chan back today, so we're staffed up. We have Seungkwan now."

"Seungkwan," Wonu repeats with a baffled shake of his head. "You're keeping him, right?"

"Yeah, if I can. He's so good, I'm really proud of him. I want to get him a fruit basket for what he's done for us."

"I'll pitch in," Wonu smiles.

Mingyu says, "But uh, yeah, we're good, so you can stay home with Soonyoung as long as he's out. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. I'll just keep you on call if we need someone to cover."

Wonu looks touched by that. He says, "Thank you, Mingyu-hyung. That's really nice."

"Yeah, obviously. That way you don't have to hire a babysitter," Mingyu laughs.

Wonu nods like Mingyu is more right than he realizes. Then he shifts for a moment, then he says, "Hey, while I'm here."

Mingyu looks over at Wonu openly, leaning against the rail.

"I'm kind of, well. I need some advice."

"Oh, sure," Mingyu says, even if he isn't sure he's worthy of giving advice anymore. Although, it's not that he doesn't know the right things to do, it's just that he hasn't been doing them. "How can I help you?"

Wonu sighs and pushes out his lips like he's thinking really hard. He says, "So, Soonyoung and I have been getting into this argument lately." But he cocks his head thoughtfully to the side like that's not quite right. "Actually, it's not about him. It's about me. And like. You know."

"I don't," Mingyu says. "Sorry."

"My family, and Soonyoung."

Ah. Mingyu understands. They've talked about this sort of thing before.

"I guess it is about Soonyoung a bit. Because he acts like I should think it's easier than it is."

Mingyu nods.

"He doesn't really understand some things, and he doesn't really try to. I mean, he's amazing. It's fun to be around him. I was, you know, I wasn't ever cool before I knew him."

"I'm sure you were cool," Mingyu says, listening.

"Well, I wasn't popular," Wonu amends. "The point is, Soonyoung doesn't get it, that it's weird for some of us. I mean, some of us have never hung out with gay people before this. Good for him and his performing arts school and his gymnastics scholarship and all his queer friends he's always had. Good for him and his bisexual sister and his parents who would buy him a city if they could afford it, no matter what he was, right?"

"Mm. Yeah," Mingyu says. He knows this feeling.

"His family has known about him for _ever_. He came out in middle school? And his parents fought for him. He can talk about it. The first time I met his mom, she was like, _you must be Soonyoung's boyfriend_." He sounds a bit bitter. After a moment, he says, "Right before he got hurt, I yelled at him about it."

Mingyu says, "I was there."

"Embarrassing," Wonu says, looking down quickly. "Sorry for that."

Mingyu's been acting way worse, so he just shrugs and lets Wonu go on.

"I need to do something about it," Wonu says, "If it's on my mind so much that I'm, you know, lashing out. But I don't know what to do. It's mostly my mom. She knows what I do, where I live, she's been to our apartment. But she still thinks I'm about to grow up and become normal and upstanding. She doesn't get that I'm already me, right now."

Mingyu knows this feeling too, he just handles it differently.

"I know that she knows," Wonu says. "But she won't say it, and I feel like if I'm the one who says it, I lose. My dignity, or something."

"Why do you feel like that?" Mingyu asks.

"I... I don't know. I guess I don't want her to force me to come out when I shouldn't have to."

"You shouldn't have to?" Mingyu asks.

"No," Wonu says seriously. "I really shouldn't. I haven't hidden anything. I've tried to show my family my real life and let them accept it. I'm tired of having to think about it so much."

"So you don't want to think about it or talk about it, but you want your family to know. By magic."

"Exactly," Wonu says, like he doesn't see the problem.

After a minute, Mingyu says, "Here's what I think."

"Please."

"I think that if you care about something, you should be willing to say it loudly."

Wonu says, "Ah."

"If you care about Soonyoung, I think you should say so, even if it makes things awkward. I think you care about him more than you want things not to be awkward." 

"I do care about him," Wonu says, and it sounds quiet and sincere.

"I don't think it's losing," Mingyu says. "I think it's winning, to decide you've gone long enough without being heard."

Wonu looks at Mingyu curiously. In his low voice that always sounds a little impartial, he says, "Wow."

Mingyu nods as he realizes that he really means what he's saying. "Yeah. That's what I think."

"You're definitely right," Wonu says, though he sounds reluctant. He pushes a hand through his hair and says, "So I guess I have to tell them."

Mingyu is gentle. "Do you think it'll be bad?"

Wonu shakes his head vaguely. "I think they've known for a long time. If it was gonna be too much, it already would have been. It's gonna, you know, burst a bubble. But I don't think it'll be really bad."

"That's good," Mingyu says.

"It was really bad for you, right?"

Mingyu shrugs. "Not that bad."

"Worse than this, though."

Mingyu makes a scrunched-up face and looks over Wonu's shoulder, across the barn at nothing. He says, "Worse than this, but not that bad." He makes himself look back at Wonu. "It doesn't mean yours isn't hard."

"I'll be okay," Wonu says. "I just gotta get brave."

Mingyu has never seen Wonu stop himself from doing anything before. Not in the same way as Soonyoung, who catapults into everything without checking first that he's got somewhere to land, but not unlike him either. Wonu goes for it too, he just plans his trajectory first. He's actually no less intense in his momentum than Soonyoung is, he just doesn't scream as loud, so people don't notice. Mingyu says, "I think you're a really brave person."

"Thanks for that, Hyung," Wonu says full-heartedly.

Mingyu takes a big breath and shakes off the clinging heaviness. "Well, you get out of here," he says with a wry smile. "I'm kicking you out. Soonyoung probably needs you."

"He probably does," Wonu says, some silliness back in his voice too. "He's... Hyung, he can do so many things that the rest of us only dream of. But he doesn't know how to heat up ramen." He waves. "Keep me updated?"

"Of course. You too," Mingyu says.

"Yeah, I'll tell you how he is."

"Well, sure, but keep me updated with your thing too."

"Oh. Sure. Will do." Wonu looks at his feet.

"You can do it," Mingyu cheers. "I believe in you."

"Later, Hyung," Wonu cheers back as he turns to leave.

♞

It's the hardest week Seokmin has worked at Medieval Times so far, not just because there's a lot of re-learning to do, but because being the Champion of the Realm is a much more intensive position than his non-speaking, first-to-be-disqualified regular part. It's like a big, sudden promotion. Now that Chan's back and Wonu and Soonyoung are out, they've settled into roles that they're planning on keeping for at least a couple weeks. Chan is back to being the Green Knight, which he's best at anyway since he plays the arrogance so well. Seungkwan's wearing Wonu's Black and White tunic for now, though he's taking Seokmin's old role. Junhui's back to being the Yellow Knight; Minghao's still the Blue Knight and Mingyu's still the Duke of Galicia. Jihoon, as always, is the no-nonsense Red Knight. Seokmin thinks it's all going quite well.

Regardless, tonight's barbecue is well-earned. The best cure for this kind of tiredness is revelry, meat, and alcohol, and there's plenty of all if it, even without Soonyoung and Wonu here.

Currently, Seokmin and Seungcheol are a bit in their cups trying to remember songs from _Excalibur_ , the musical they were in together years ago _._ They had a duet that they stumble through, laughing. Then Seokmin does his big solo, only flubbing a few of the lines, lifts his voice over the chatter, and it feels great and funny and everybody applauds. Minghao giggles, then looks up at Junhui, and then they both giggle. Chan shouts a cheer. Over Hansol's head and all the noise at the table, Seungkwan yells, "We should duet sometime!"

Seokmin shouts, "You can sing, too?"

"I have a vocal performance degree!" Seungkwan shouts back.

"Is there anything you can't do?" Seokmin yells.

"Math!"

"Word!" Seokmin screeches, much louder than he needs to, while Hansol smiles and smiles between them like he's holding a big laugh in. He's a Serf now, and he insists that it's temporary, but Seokmin thinks he should stay on. He's in the building enough, Seokmin reasons with him a few minutes later, he really _should_ be getting paid.

Hansol says, "Well, I'm still scared of horses."

"We're getting you used to it," Seungkwan tells him sweetly. "You like Peach."

"I think Peach is nice, but I'm scared of her," Hansol says. "Her eyes are too big."

"She has normal eyes for a horse," Seungkwan says pityingly. "I'm gonna have my own horse one day and you are _going_ to ride her. That's non-negotiable."

"If you say so," Hansol smiles, and they look at each other all close and cute and it makes Seokmin's heart feel warm just being nearby.

Then Hansol turns back to Seokmin. "There's a lot of Serf drama, too. It's like high school. I don't know if I can keep up."

Seokmin laughs, because he does get that vibe. Literally, right now, Jeonghan and Joshua are whispering to each other across the table about something that could be any degree of sinister.

Seokmin tells Hansol the advice that always works for him. "Usually, if there's drama, I just ignore it. Then people stop bringing it around me. Confrontation I can do, but not just gossip."

Hansol squints his eyes like he's thinking, and then he says something, but Seokmin doesn't hear it over the commotion at the table.

It's Mingyu arriving. Which is fine, Seokmin doesn't have any feelings about it. He and Mingyu, as far as Seokmin is concerned, have settled their score and are ready to move on as colleagues.

It was three days ago that Mingyu tried to kill Seokmin with a real sword, but didn't end up actually killing him. Then, when Seokmin went to yell at him about it, Mingyu looked like he was gonna pass out, so Seokmin took him out for skewers, which was only the nice thing to do.

That meal was actually sort of pleasant. They sat at a table outside the food cart and Mingyu ate two servings and then deflated like a balloon and said, "I'm sorry for the way I acted."

It wasn't that it was okay, really, but being there right then actually made up for a lot, and Seokmin said so. "Thanks for coming to eat with me."

"It was nice of you to ask," Mingyu said quietly, "After everything." He was such a big person, but he had a way of seeming very small.

The energy became very strange between them, but only for a minute. Now, when they fight at the end of the night, Mingyu doesn't try to kill Seokmin anymore. And that's their relationship.

So when Mingyu gets to the table and everybody, half-drunk, cheers and shouts, Seokmin just claps along quietly. When Jihoon makes a toast to Mingyu's leadership in this trying time, Seokmin smiles, lifts his glass with everybody else. And when Mingyu grins his big friendly grin over at Seokmin from his seat directly across the table and says, as if they're friends, "How are you holding up?" Seokmin doesn't know what to say for a minute.

Eventually, he settles on, "Fine, thank you," and then goes back to talking to Hansol. He averts his gaze from that section of the table after that, but feels Mingyu looking at him more than once. While it may be kind of weird and not exactly welcome, few things are uncomfortable enough to ruin Seokmin's fun, so he just keeps drinking and eating and laughing with his friends.

The next week at work, Mingyu keeps trying to act like he and Seokmin are friends. He includes him in conversation, tells him he's doing a good job, checks on him during the show in a way he never has before.

Normally, Seokmin would be open to this. In fact, he can't think of another time he was offered a clear olive branch and wasn't happy to take it. But this isn't actually an olive branch. This is Mingyu just trying to pretend that nothing ever happened.

And something did happen. Mingyu was really unfriendly in a way that Seokmin found frankly unproductive, and then he tried to kill him with a real sword. Which was a moment from which Seokmin hasn't fully recovered. He was scared for his life. He didn't think he was really going to die, but he realized right then that he could, that it was possible, and he wasn't in control of it. It was the same fear as the night when Bermudo wouldn't listen to his commands, but worse, because of the malice.

It's not just something Seokmin wants to forget about. He doesn't trust Mingyu after something like that.

Seokmin works on being a nice person, and he knows that he is one. But being nice and being friends with people who try to hurt you are different things. Mingyu didn't even go out of his way to apologize.

Seokmin doesn't hate Mingyu, and he doesn't think Mingyu is only pretending to be a kind, strong hyung. He is those things, but Seokmin still wants to keep his distance.

They still do the fight at the end of the show, and, when Mingyu is being normal, he's not half-bad at stage fighting. He takes blows really well, and he's responsive in the right way, stanced and limber. It's fun to fight him as the Duke, actually, and Seokmin has certainly put indifference aside to put on a good show before. It's just, when Mingyu tells him backstage how great they did, Seokmin doesn't have anything to say but, "Thanks."

A little over a week after the accursed swordfight, Mingyu comes to Seokmin after the show.

It seems like he's being careful not to corner him, but Seokmin is still wary of this, of Mingyu standing over him in the dressing room and asking, however kindly, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Seokmin could say no, but that would seem obstinate. He nods up at Mingyu and says, "Okay, sure. I'll meet you out there."

He takes his time finishing changing and heads out to the hall, which feels subterranean and is built wide enough for several horses to walk through. Mingyu waves and Seokmin goes to stand near him.

Mingyu looks uncomfortable, trying so hard to be welcoming that he looks almost sad. Seokmin doesn't warm up to him.

"Hey, Seokmin," Mingyu says with his little lisp. "I'm sorry for dragging you out here. I just didn't want to say this in front of everybody."

"It's alright," Seokmin says, reserving any reaction until he knows what's going on.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry," Mingyu says; so big, even when shifting back and forth, even with his kind, sad eyes. "I know I sort of said it at the skewer place, but I don't think it was enough. I really am, very sorry." He runs a hand back through his shiny hair, pushing it off his face, and says, "There was no excuse for how I acted. Not just on Friday, but like, since you got here. I haven't been fair at all. I feel really bad about it all."

"Thank you," Seokmin says, a bit taken aback by the forthrightness. He expects Mingyu to say more, to explain why he acted the way he has, or something. But he doesn't. He just says, "We don't have to be friends, but I just want you to know that I won't be that way anymore. I want you to be able to trust me and I want us to be on the same team from now on."

Seokmin, well, he's a nice person. And he does want to like everyone, and he does tend to see the good in people. Maybe he's a bit naive, but looking at Mingyu's sincere eyes and his little funny pout, well. He thinks maybe they might be able to be friends, sometime. This makes up for a lot. Seokmin says, "Okay. I accept your apology, Hyung." Then he holds out his hand to shake, and Mingyu takes it.

♞

Jeonghan is considering getting Seungkwan demoted.

It's not out of any evil in his heart, just boredom, mostly. It would be a two for one win, because he'd get to act bad and then he'd get Seungkwan back, which would make him less bored. Seungkwan is an annoying little freak, but he keeps things fun.

Jeonghan hates his job. Like, hates it. The tunic makes him look like he’s shaped like a sandbag. The script is embarrassing. His coworkers are mostly morons, not to mention the Citizens (all morons). It's not even real bartending, which he's actually good at, it's mostly pulling levers to pour beers and daiquiris and measuring out miserly weak shots of soju. He's not _mixing_ anything. Occasionally some weird grandpa will come in and ask for a martini, but Jeonghan's usually like, "If I type that in, it's gonna be like thirty thousand won." Then Jeonghan is the monster because he won't cheat the POS. But they don't know. Maybe his boss will be around. She never is, but what if she is? Obviously, Jeonghan makes a stupid amount of money, or else he'd have left years ago to work somewhere that didn't take place in a disorienting alternate reality where a bunch of little theatre twerps do homoerotic sports in a Korean version of old timey Europe.

Seungkwan's job, other than being the best Serf besides Joshua, has basically been jingling around like Jeonghan's little fool for the past two years. Telling his jokes and stories, singing his songs, bringing mirth to the tavern. Jeonghan doesn't want to rely too much on Seungkwan's delightful tumbling, but it turns out he's going nuts without him.

Obviously, Jeonghan tells Joshua whenever anything happens, but Joshua is so placid about everything. Joshua is perfect, he's the best person Jeonghan knows, but he isn't a court jester like Seungkwan. No one is. Joshua listens to whatever Jeonghan says and goes back to looking at his phone, but Seungkwan is a perfect little Serf who never breaks any rules and leaves his phone in his _locker_ like a _lunatic_.

Things just aren't the same since Seungkwan got promoted to go live his glorious dream, or whatever. He can't stand these Citizens if there's no one to dish with between food runs. Jeonghan is getting pissy and he is getting fed up.

So yeah, he's considering getting Seungkwan demoted. He's just thinking about it right now. He wants to see if he can get some kind of dirt to dangle over his head, some blackmail or something. It's simply convenient that Seungkwan's boyfriend of however many godforsaken years has stepped into his shoes as a Serf.

Sweet Hansol. He's actually perfect at this job with basically no training, but Jeonghan doesn't think he's very smart. He's good at following instructions; he's always doing what Seungkwan asks him to do with an empty little grin on his face. Seungkwan has no idea the resource he's dropped into Jeonghan's lap. He is going to mine Hansol for everything he has.

At least, that's what he thinks until he starts peppering his evil little questions into conversation.

"So, you and Seungkwan have been together a while," he says one evening between food runs.

Hansol is ladling King Alfonso's Finest Kimchi Stew into bowls on a tray, and he says, "Yep, like four years."

"That's so crazy."

"Uh-huh," Hansol says, still ladling, more gracefully than one would think from someone who stands like a troll.

"You live together, right?" Jeonghan asks, not helping, though Hansol doesn't seem to mind that much.

"You've been to our place, so yeah,” Hansol says. He's setting up another tray of soup bowls.

"That’s so much fun."

“Yes,” Hansol says.

Like, what the fuck? Jeonghan tries it like four different ways and he never gets anything. People _love_ talking about themselves and their annoying boyfriends, and good gossip is sometimes the only reason Jeonghan doesn't hold this place up with one of the Medieval torture devices mounted on the wall by the gift shop. Some nights he can picture it so well, standing on the counter in his stupid little tunic and swinging a flail around. See, he needs his bard to keep him calm, or else he starts fantasizing about doing villainous deeds.

Finally, it hits him. Seungkwan knew _exactly_ the kind of resource he was dropping into Jeonghan's lap. His boyfriend of a million stupid years would know very well what it feels like to get mined for intel. The empty little smile belies his cunning. Alright, Jeonghan can admit when he's been bested.

There's still gossip to be found, Jeonghan is sure. Seungkwan kept his horse riding lessons a secret for a year, so he's not the fool Jeonghan took him for. But neither is Hansol. So Jeonghan will have to employ more advanced implements.

♞

It turns out, friendship with Mingyu is easy.

On Friday, Mingyu texts Seokmin to come in early, if he's free. Seokmin is free, so he does, and Mingyu trains him with Bermudo for an hour before anybody else gets there.

He's patient, and it doesn't even look like he's fighting the simmering frustration that Seokmin has gotten so used to. He has great advice, he can tell exactly what's going on that's preventing Seokmin and Bermudo from getting on the same page, and he can explain Bermudo's body language in a way that makes sense. Seokmin tries the silly little things that Mingyu is suggesting, creating peace and space and time within himself and bringing that energy to his interactions with Bermudo. It's a kind of lesson Seokmin hasn't received before: less about how to do things technically correctly and more about how to understand this animal, and it helps more than anything else has. They make a plan to meet up again the next week.

Later that night, when Seokmin steps backstage after slaying Mingyu, they hug. It's quick and manly and Mingyu slaps Seokmin's back, but still, it's a hug. They've never done that before, yet they go into it like it's easy. "Nice job tonight," Mingyu says sincerely, smiling all the way so Seokmin can see his sharp canine teeth and his slightly lopsided grin and the apples of his cheeks, like he isn't thinking about anything important.

"You too, excellent job tonight," Seokmin says, and Mingyu claps him on the shoulder as they head back to the dressing room.

The next day, Mingyu is eating something that looks amazing. Seokmin overslept and left his apartment at the last possible minute, so he hasn't eaten. He was just gonna try and steal something from the kitchen in between shows later, but Mingyu catches him eyeing his takeout box.

"Want some?" he asks.

"No," Seokmin says. “Eat your own food, Hyung.”

"I'm not that hungry," Mingyu says easily, and then he holds out a big bite of meat in his chopsticks for Seokmin. Seokmin hesitates for a second, but then he leans in and takes it, because leaving Mingyu hanging would be rude when he is looking at Seokmin so imploringly.

There's someone in the audience one night who is screaming and screaming. They're shrieking wordlessly, voice rising above the rest of the crowd from the Green Knight's section. It's really funny, and Seokmin and Mingyu laugh about it in between scenes, trying to imitate the sound.

When everyone is lined up toward the back of the arena awaiting the crowning of the Champion, the Citizen shouts during a particularly pregnant pause from King Alfonso. It's so shocking and sudden from directly behind Seokmin that he has to work to keep his face straight during this very important scene where he is the focus, his helmet off and the spotlight on him. Seokmin can't tell if it's a man or a woman, if they're old or young, he just hears the unbridled excitement, and it's hilarious.

After the show, Mingyu and Seokmin laugh about it for so long. They're talking about something else, but interrupting each other with random shrieks. Mingyu laughs so hard that he snorts, which makes Seokmin laugh so hard that he almost falls down, reaches out a hand for Mingyu to steady him. Other people are looking at them like they're being crazy. It's the type of funny that is only really funny because Seokmin is sharing it with someone else, and they understand together and completely, and the humor grows between them like a blown bubble.

On Wednesday, Mingyu looks really stressed out again. Seokmin doesn't know if it might make it better or worse, but he's enjoying being in the circle of Mingyu's gentleness, and he loves to help with things, so he asks what's wrong and if there's anything he can do. Mingyu says, "It's all good, Seokmin, but thanks for asking. I just talked to Mina, and she recommended that Soonyoung stay home for a whole month. Not just to recover from the dislocated shoulder, but to rest up for a bit."

"Ouch," Seokmin says. "That's a long time."

"Yeah, and I'm giving Wonu the time off too, so we're gonna have to keep it like this for a bit."

"That won't be so bad," Seokmin says, and he's actually being honest. They're really starting to adapt to the new arrangement. Everyone is kicking ass, even Seungkwan. Especially Seungkwan.

Mingyu looks over at Seokmin with a very serious expression. "No, it really won't be so bad. And, as for help, you're doing a lot already. I'm really grateful for everything."

It seems like that is hard to say, an admission of failure, even. Seokmin isn't trying to unpack _that_ , but he is happy to be in Mingyu's good graces. So he says, "Thank you, Hyung. I'm trying my best. Do you want to get dinner tonight?"

Mingyu nods, a bit shyly, and then he says, "Gotta go get Ramiro ready. See you."

"See you," Seokmin says, and then he waves a little bit flirtily, because he thinks he might be onto something.

♞

Sunjin♥: seokmin-ssi

Seokmin-ssi

Seokmin dongsaeng nim

Seokmin: Hi noona!

Sunjin♥: helllllooooooo

Guess what

Seokmin: What!!!

Sunjin♥: in 3 weeks. the 15th. I have secured monday, tuesday, and wednesday off work

I am hovering my mouse over a train ticket to seoul

Seokmin: YOU'RE VISITING?

Sunjin♥: yes I'm buying the tickets

Ok Done

Seokmin: YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

WOW NOONA I am so excited

Honestly I think it's good that you weren't able to visit before.

I'm way better at everything now.

You're gonna be impressed now. I have lines

Sunjin♥: I can't wait to see you ride a horse and say lines

Seokmin: I'm getting kinda good at it

I was so bad at first ㅎㅎㅎ but I worked really hard

Sunjin♥: thats my guy

I can stay with you right?

I got a ticket coming in saturday morning so I figure I can hang out with krystal that night and then come to work with you sunday, if that works?

Seokmin: Absolutely!! And that'll be great because we do like a big bbq night on sundays so you can hang with everybody after

Sunjin♥: exciting. A feast. Famous people.

Seokmin: Lol yeah right. Im probably less famous now than I was during peter pan

But im happier that show was insane

Sunjin♥: I remember omg. Poor sokminnie. I still wanna find that guys house and mail him something mean )-:<

Seokmin: ITS OK NOONA IM A KNIGHT NOW

Sunjin♥: Cutest knight everrrrr

Hey im really sorry we keep missing each other.

Here let me email you my itinerary

Eeeeee I have gifts for you

Can't wait can't wait

Seokmin: WOWWWWWW!!!!

♞

Somehow, it surprises Seokmin that Mingyu makes him laugh. That he's funny, surprisingly quick with words for a person who thinks so much before he speaks.

It's also surprising that Mingyu is, actually, cute. Seokmin has spent a lot of time noticing that Mingyu is handsome: he's so big and so strong and there's something about him, his face in the golden stage lights at the end of the show, sweat in his mussed hair and dripping down the sides of his face; his kind, confident smile as he bestows his carnations upon Ladies of the Realm. His beauty is so obvious.

But cute is new. At the pizza place, Mingyu orders for the two of them, but it's clear that he feels awkward, and as they go to their table he looks at Seokmin like it was _hard_. It's the same face he makes when he's just solved a huge problem at work and needs to catch his breath. Mingyu, the most confident person, the boss of everyone, is embarrassed to ask the cashier too many questions about pizza toppings.

At the table, Mingyu gets a bit chatty, a bit silly. Rather than the flat and serious voice he uses when he leads people or the low and gentle way he talks to horses, his voice starts to bounce up and down almost childishly as he tells Seokmin a story about a horse he used to care for who was obsessed with grapes. His eyes get round when he chews his food, smiles tiny around a mouthful. He seems smaller somehow when he's not working, his laughter is easier. Seokmin knows this person, but he thinks he's starting to understand him much better. He likes this off-work Mingyu who doesn’t have to set an example all the time. He likes this Mingyu who is kind of weird. He wants to know more. 

Mingyu talks about work and about horses, and he asks Seokmin questions about himself.

"Where are you from?" he asks, and Seokmin says, _"_ Busan."

"What did you study in school?" he asks, and Seokmin says, _"_ Musical theatre, for a year, before I dropped out to do it for real."

"You're a really good actor," Mingyu says, bouncy, the less-thinking version of himself.

"Thank you," Seokmin says. "This is the least actor-y acting role I've ever had, but I think it's my favorite. It's definitely the hardest."

"I think memorizing tons of lines would be harder for me," Mingyu says.

"I find that part surprisingly easy," Seokmin nods. "But riding a horse? You know." He almost says something about how he's never felt danger on stage before either, but that feels too soon.

Instead, he asks Mingyu what he studied in school, and Mingyu says, "Oh, nothing. I had a job training horses already, so I just did my military service and went full-time after that.”

"Ah yeah, I went before college too," Seokmin says. "I guess you already knew what you were gonna do." 

"Yeah. I guess you did too."

"What about you, where did you grow up?” Seokmin asks. "Not Seoul, right?"

“Nah, Daegu," Mingyu says.

"What brought you here?"

"Horses," Mingyu says with a little smile, like he knows that the answer to every question is _horses_ , but can't bring himself to feel that bad about it.

"Right, horses, of course," Seokmin laughs, and he expects Mingyu to say more, like, about which horses brought him to Seoul, or when he moved, or anything, but he doesn't go on.

Later, Seokmin mentions his noona. "She's visiting in a couple weeks. I'm really excited, I think she's gonna love the show. She's like my best friend in the world. I miss her a lot, but she has a life in Busan, and I," as he says it he realizes how true it is, how really true, for the first time, "I have a life in Seoul, too. So we see each other when we can."

"That's really cool," Mingyu says meaningfully, listening. "I'm happy you have her."

"Totally," Seokmin says. "She's good to me. We spent a lot of time together growing up. Our parents used to only let her go out with her friends if she dragged me along, so she, she taught me how to be cool so I wouldn't embarrass her. By the time she graduated high school, when I was like fifteen, she didn't even complain about having to take me anymore. We're really good friends. She was the first one I told about... about being gay, and she's always been..." he glances at Mingyu to gauge his reaction, but there's nothing, which is fine, "she's always been the best."

"You're lucky to have that," Mingyu says kindly. "I'm happy she's there for you." So Seokmin's in the clear.

"What about you? Any siblings?" Seokmin asks.

Mingyu looks like he's thinking, like he can't remember if he has siblings or not, which is only a tiny bit weird. He finally says, "No."

And then he doesn't go on. So Seokmin's noticing that Mingyu really doesn't like to talk about himself, even about normal stuff.

Still, they keep looking at each other, and Mingyu keeps looking away. But not like he's avoiding Seokmin's eyes, more like he's having trouble holding them for too long. So Seokmin thinks he's onto something.

He's right, when they're done eating, they find themselves in the alley behind the restaurant, and Seokmin is grabbing Mingyu's arms and leaning up into him, pressing him against a wall. It actually feels romantic despite how they're backlit by ugly blue streetlights, surrounded by traffic on all sides, despite the fact that this is sloppy and that, once they are touching, they're both more desperate than the moment. Yet, Mingyu presses his big hands into Seokmin's back and kisses him like he... like he really cares about him. There's a pushing and pulling like they are hungry for something deeper, like they are digging for something else. Mingyu gives in so easily, kisses that feel like begging, sighs that make him sound smaller than he feels. 

It makes up for a lot, the way Mingyu kisses him, is kissed by him. The way he has been looking at Seokmin. It doesn't feel like pure lust. It feels like heart-touching, like space and time and peace shared between them. It feels like this means more to both of them than just some clandestine kiss in an alley. 

Now that they've finally been drawn together, it's hard to let go again. So it feels kind of romantic.

♞

Wonu: updates:

soonyoung is well.

He is learning to knit, even though he has to keep his arm in the sling. He likes the challenge. He made me one fingerless glove. It is very ugly.

Mingyu: you know what they say about gifts made by loved ones.

Worth more than gold.

Wonu: You'll change your mind once you see this glove. It looks like the string was in a knot and he didn't untangle it before knitting. It's too big and also too small.

He also made me help him dye his hair blue the other day.

Mingyu: can he change it back before he comes back to work?

Wonu: He says it's pedantic for you to let him bleach it but not dye it blue, plus he wears his ugly little hat now.

Mingyu: is it pedantic?

Wonu: he says yes it is pedantic, but between you and me, you're right.

Mingyu: I guess we can talk about that later lol. Glad he is doing okay. How's it feeling?

Wonu: he says no pain and complains all day about having to wear the thing. But he's being really big about it. Don't tell.

Mingyu: stays between you and me, of course.

What about your thing?

Wonu: well. I did it.

Mingyu: oh wow. Congratulations.

Or, sorry?

Wonu: congrats is good.

It didn't go how I wanted it to but the end result is basically the same.

They’re not jazzed.

Mingyu: so... it's awkward but they don't hate you, and they acknowledge that you and soonyoung are in a relationship?

Wonu: exactly.

Worth it.

More than worth it.

Once they cool down I'm gonna make them take us for dinner.

Mingyu: you should. I know you mean that to be evil but I think it could be really good.

Wonu: thanks for your faith in me not actually being evil. I agree that it could be good.

Me and soonyoung are gonna get married someday. I am leaving them no choice but to look at us.

Mingyu: I think that's very cool.

Wonu: hyung have you dated that much? You're so wise but you've been single since medieval times opened, right?

Mingyu: how do you know I'm single?

Wonu: omg....

Mingyu: Just kidding. It's complicated for me usually.

Wonu: why is it complicated? Have you seen you?

Mingyu: Just because I could hook up with someone doesn't mean people actually want to date

Wonu: why not???

Mingyu: Because I am weird.

Wonu: didn't stop soonyoung from tying somebody down

Mingyu: it's different for me.

Wonu: whyyyy

Mingyu: to be honest?

I am basically faking my way through life.

People who think they want to date me usually just want to date the person they think I am.

Sorry. Pretend I didn't say that.

Everything is okay.

One day I will be as confident as I pretend to be.

Wonu: hey.

I get it.

Plus, you're there for me a lot. I can be there for you too

Mingyu: well I'm your boss

Wonu: since when do I need bossing?

I care about you.

You can talk to me.

Somebodys gonna love that big handsome face of yours for exactly what it is. 

Mingyu: also nobody wants to be #2 to horses forever

Wonu: Idk. The heart is a big place.

Mingyu: Thank you.

Wonu: you can always talk to me hyung.

except right now me and soonyoung are going for dinner

Watch out Hyung. We have barely even been jogging. And we've been eating a ton of cheese.

Mingyu: as long as you can still ride when you get back.

I don't care if soonyoung can do gymnastics anymore

Wonu: he's been defying the laws of this land for too long.

Mingyu: Exactly

Wonu: ok. Bye. But really anytime

Mingyu: Enjoy dinner

♞

“I’ve literally been in character for two and a half years,” Barkeep Jeonghan is saying to Serf Joshua between shows one night. “I was on the phone with my fucking mom, and I was like, _huzzah!_ It’s sick.”

“I know what you mean. I smell like chicken all the time,” Joshua responds as he pushes at a cuticle.

“Sometimes I feel like I actually live in this fake castle. Like the real world is just the Joyparty version of Medieval Spain. Joshy, do you think I’m going mad?”

Joshua looks up at Jeonghan and shakes his head passively. “You’re not any crazier than you were when I met you.”

“Thanks for that,” Jeonghan says, rolling his eyes.

Joshua says, “We should go on vacation. I haven’t like left Seoul city limits since last year.”

“Ugh, you’re a genius,” Jeonghan says. He immediately thinks about a pool and a stiff drink that someone else made him, with a regular name and regular ingredients and not some embarrassing blue raspberry elixir that he has to call the _Unicorn’s Lament_. Yes. “Let’s get away.”

“My friend was posting pics from Nami Island the other week. It looks super nice this time of year. She like, met an ostrich.”

Jeonghan literally loves Joshua. “We have to go. We can get a nice room and just chill out. Oh my god, wait, that sounds amazing.”

“Exactly,” Joshua says as he nods his head sagely.

“Okay, but we have to invite Seungkwan too. Right?”

Joshua shrugs. “I guess. I mean, he's cruel to me every day, but yeah.”

“I miss him,” Jeonghan whines. “It’s not fair to me that I don’t get to listen to his neurotic rambling all the time anymore.”

Joshua doesn’t seem totally convinced, but Jeonghan is hellbent on having Seungkwan and Hansol there, so later on, he sees Hansol in the kitchen and sidles up to him.

“Hey, so.”

“Hi, Jeonghan.”

“Hi. Me and Joshua were talking about going away for the weekend soon, and we were hoping you and Kwan would come.”

Hansol glances up, and it looks a little different than the other times he has avoided Jeonghan’s probing. Just a tiny bit, but Jeonghan is a mastermind and a psychopath, so he tucks the weird glimmer away for later. “Yeah, I’ll ask Kwan when I see him.”

“Excellent,” Jeonghan says. “Tell him I miss him and I won’t take no for an answer.”

A nonplussed laugh. “Will do. Cool, well, I gotta go bring out this sponge cake.”

“Great,” Jeonghan says, wondering what Hansol had to be hesitant about.

He sees Seungkwan before the show the next day, all dressed up in his Yellow tunic, like a boy become a man. Despite being promoted, Seungkwan still comes up front to neg Joshua and neurotically click around on the POS before the show whenever he can. Just like old times; it’s cute.

Jeonghan sees him chatting with Hansol about something, their hands held between them thoughtlessly. He approaches them and says, “Hey, Kwan. Did Hansol tell you about me and Joshy’s vacation idea?”

“Yeah, but we can’t go that weekend,” Seungkwan says. “Sorry, Han.”

Ugh, suspicious. “What weekend?” Jeonghan asks. “We hadn’t decided what weekend we were going.”

What the fuck is going on? Seungkwan looks like he’s been caught, and Jeonghan doesn’t even know at _what_. “What are you hiding, weirdo?”

Seungkwan’s biggest tell is that he gets combative really fast when he’s lying or being evasive, and right now, he squares up right away. He says, “Nothing, stop. I’m not your little pony anymore.”

He’s so easy. Jeonghan says, “You’ll always be my little pony. Spit it out.”

But then Seungkwan rolls his eyes. “Actually, I have to go be a Knight now, so I don’t have time today for your ugly little urchin games. I would love to go on your trip but I can’t, and that’s all you need to know.”

“Ew,” Jeonghan says, shocked.

And Seungkwan doesn't say anything else. He kisses Hansol on the cheek and heads back through the kitchen toward the dressing room.

♞

When Mingyu invites Seokmin back to his apartment, he tries to act like he's gonna cook, like he has some stuff that's about to go bad. But it's a thinly veiled excuse from someone who told Seokmin only yesterday that he knew which parts of the building were least trafficked, in case he wanted to slip away for a minute.

Oh, Mingyu. He's so sexy. He's so good at looking like he's got it all figured out, like he's the boss of it all, but he's actually very soft inside. Gentle in a different way than Seokmin realized at first. When he's being gentle, it's not because he's holding back strength. It's more like his strength pulls back to show that he was really gentle all along.

Also, Mingyu is so weird. When Seokmin gets to his room, he has to take a break from pushing Mingyu into the bed to laugh at all the horse decor he has in there.

He has show photos and art hung on the walls. Medals and trophies. A horse plushie in his bed, and an embroidered pillow that says "Horses leave hoof prints on your heart." Books in his bookcase: Dressage Essentials, The Andalusian, Encyclopedia of Horses and Ponies, and so on. That's not to mention the three pairs of riding shoes lined up by the door, all the Medieval Times shit lying around, the fact that the whole place smells like horses, just a little, though Seokmin thinks Mingyu probably doesn’t even notice that anymore. 

"Wow, we should have gone to your place," Mingyu laughs when he notices Seokmin looking around, but he actually sounds embarrassed. Like he's so horse-blind that he forgot it was going to be like this.

Seokmin is laughing, too, but not at Mingyu. He likes that Mingyu knows who he is. He likes Mingyu, actually. He likes this. He likes what they're about to do. He says, "I think you're the cutest boy I've ever kissed."

Then he pushes him the rest of the way into the bed.

Mingyu wears tight pants for riding, usually, but he wears loose shirts, and the costumes they wear are bulky, full of buckles and leather and thick, padded fabric.

It's not like that's kept Seokmin from learning what Mingyu's body looks like before. He sees it in glimpses; he's felt it. He has defined pecs, like, actual cleavage in the V's of his shirts. A waist that goes in and then out again. Big, muscular arms, strong shoulders from lifting and pulling and carrying. And, of course, he's got insane thighs. A big butt. Seokmin's getting buff there, too. Horseback riding is hard and makes you strong, but he's only been doing it for six months, and Mingyu's been doing it for fifteen years.

So Seokmin does have an idea of what to expect, but when he gets Mingyu's loose cotton shirt off, it doesn't make him any less stunning.

Mingyu has the gorgeous body of someone who works hard all the time, but not to show off. He's surprisingly soft in places, his belly and his arms. Something about him is so vulnerable, even though he is so strong. He's the sexiest person Seokmin has ever slept with, and he makes sure Mingyu knows it. If the way Mingyu responds, noisy and desperate and needy and fast, is any way of telling, he probably gets the message across.

Seokmin sleeps over, and they go into work together the next day. Seokmin wears a too-big shirt of Mingyu's, and both of them are a bit worse for wear. But if anyone notices, no one says so.

♞

Three minutes before cues start coming, Seokmin and Mingyu are still in the wardrobe department, making out behind a rack of dresses.

"We have to go," Seokmin says, hot breath on Mingyu's neck, but he's already leaning back in. His voice is so low that it rumbles against Mingyu's chest and mouth more than Mingyu can hear it in his heart-pounding ears.

"We're gonna be late," Mingyu agrees, "If we don't go right now."

"Okay," Seokmin whispers, "On three, we go."

Seokmin grins into Mingyu’s mouth, a hand on the side of his face as he pushes him up against the wall.

"Three," Seokmin says, and Mingyu doesn't stop kissing him. "Two," and Seokmin pushes against him even harder, deeper, making the most out of his very last second. "One."

And Seokmin lets him go suddenly, steps back with hot cheeks and wide eyes and looks Mingyu up and down. Mingyu catches his breath, stands up straight, swallows.

A moment of them looking at each other, that spark between them, pulling together or pushing apart, all the lust and hunger between them.

Then Mingyu pushes his hair back, nods once, and they go.

Alone in the dressing room one day, Seokmin gets brave. He fixes Mingyu's hair and then kisses his forehead. Mingyu looks at him. He's nervous, it's a little far, but he doesn't know exactly who he's hiding from, or why.

It's just strange, this thing they're doing, and Mingyu doesn't know what he would say if anyone were to ask. He hasn't asked himself.

But no one would ask, and no one would be upset if they did. It would be fine. There’s just something so tenuous about it.

It's just physical, probably. There has always been a lot between them. Even when they didn't get along, even when Seokmin was afraid of Mingyu, something connected them from across the room. Like Mingyu could tell where Seokmin was, even with his eyes closed, burning bright and hot wherever he stood. They have such a sense for each other, and coming together like this, it's almost embarrassing how much they want it. How much Mingyu wants it. It's almost magical, the sense it all makes. 

But Mingyu doesn't think it's likely for Seokmin to have real feelings for him, after everything. It makes sense that they have something to work out, that the force that made them hate each other is the same force that brings Seokmin to Mingyu's apartment almost every night, but anything more than that doesn't really make sense.

Mingyu could really like Seokmin, of course. He probably already does; Seokmin is impossible not to really like. But there is probably nothing more to it, for Seokmin, than the hunger they share.

And Seokmin is hungry. He can be overwhelming, the way he dives full-hearted. It's scary to be so swept up in his attention and his hot touch and his full focus when Mingyu is trying to be reasonable. Seokmin is not afraid of anything. Sometimes it feels like he wants to tear Mingyu open and free all the little pieces of him. Sometimes Mingyu feels it threatening to happen. When he and Seokmin are together, he feels known, but not in a way that makes him want to arm himself.

Sometimes, when they're together, in bed or in the kitchen or even at work, Mingyu doesn't think about anything, and that's the scariest of all. For a minute, Mingyu doesn't remember to be leader or Hyung. Seokmin has a way of wiggling the truth out of other people, because he is nothing but truth. Exactly what a Knight should be, Mingyu thinks, with a pang of residual jealousy, even when he has Seokmin to himself.

Mingyu is alright with the kind of vulnerability that comes from inviting Seokmin to his bed, but he isn't sure about the kind that would come from letting him into his heart. Though, he worries that it might already be too late. He might already be in too deep, falling in love with someone who doesn't need anything from Mingyu except his body, for a while. 

Mostly, Mingyu tries not to think about it too hard. It's happening, definitely. He's definitely sleeping with Seokmin. He wants to, and he doesn't plan on stopping, and he doesn't even know, right now, if he could.

So mostly he does it. He lets Seokmin kiss him in the office and in the wardrobe. He lets Seokmin kiss him in the aviary as the falcons scream battle cries. He lets him kiss him in the barn while Sancho waits impatiently to be fed. He lets him kiss him in an alcove before getting on the metro back to Mingyu's apartment, and on the metro, he lets Seokmin tangle their fingers behind his bag. Then he kisses Seokmin in the elevator up to his apartment, and hard against the inside of the door when they get inside. They can't stop touching, can't stop looking, and it almost becomes a little game. How far can they push it without being seen? How long can Mingyu's hand linger on Seokmin's shoulder in the dressing room? How often can they disappear together? The answer is a lot, because they get lost in the chaos. Nothing but a comment from Junhui: _it's cool to see you two getting along._

It's all very sexy. When they're alone together, Mingyu sometimes feels like enough, even when he doesn't take charge, even when he lets himself stop being strong. It is the best sex he's ever had. Always before it has been with people who wanted, in some way, to take something from Mingyu. But Seokmin isn't trying to drain him at all; instead he gives and gives and gives. If Mingyu can't be honest when he speaks, at least he feels honest when Seokmin is on top of him, cheeks pink and watching, listening to the sounds Mingyu can't keep inside himself. At least the bruises on the insides of Seokmin's thighs are honest. At least, when they're done, the way they look at each other is honest, even if Mingyu sometimes feels a little lost.

♞

Sunjin gets to Seoul early on Saturday, and Seokmin meets her at the train station. Last minute, he drew her name on a piece of cardboard, and he's holding it up to be silly. LEE SUNJIN. Like he's gonna put her in a car, laughable. 

They can't play the joke out, because she sees him and runs right to him, drops her bag and he drops his sign and she hugs him around the middle, yelling, "Seokmin-ah!"

"Noona," Seokmin says, and wow, he might actually cry. He hasn't seen her in six months, and just her voice, the smell of the perfume she always wears makes him feel so safe that he could melt. "Hi."

She leans back to get a good look at him. "Ah, look at you! So sharp and handsome. Wow. You're a _grown up,_ disgusting. You used to be as big as a sandwich."

"I thought I was a fat baby," Seokmin says.

"You are a fat baby," Sunjin says, hugging him around the waist again and wiggling with joy. "Fat baby, fat baby. Okay, please take me to your house."

They get on the metro back to Seokmin's apartment, and she drops off her suitcase and gets cleaned up. They eat lunch and they talk and laugh and it feels like singing, it's so note-perfect. Like a song you know perfectly, so well you don't have to think, the path worn into your body.

It's things like this that could make Seokmin shatter with sadness, even though he's very, very happy. It's remembering what it feels like to be at home with someone who loves you and would never let you fail. Seokmin trained himself out of being homesick, but it creeps up on him. His job is the closest thing he's had to family at his fingertips in three years, and he loves it, he loves his people, but there's nothing like a noona to remind you what it really is to be known inside and out.

Before he knows it, four hours have passed, and Seokmin has to go to work. Sunjin has plans with one of her best friends tonight, so they say goodbye and plan for late drinks back at Seokmin's.

So Seokmin goes, leaving part of his heart behind. But when he gets to work, he finds that part of his heart is waiting there too. Before things get busy, Mingyu and Seokmin go to the most romantic place of all, the janitor's closet in a far reach of the building, next to one of the public restrooms.

It's all a lot, and when they have to part to actually work, Seokmin feels it like a blazing sun in his chest. He doesn't know if it's good or bad or just overwhelming, but he tries to use it to his advantage when he's in the arena on Garcia's back, shouting his heartfelt lines about the Honor of Spain.

At the end of the show, Seokmin hurries to take off his makeup and get ready to go, and Mingyu sort of gives him a look. Like, _where to tonight?_

Seokmin takes out his phone and texts Mingyu from across the dressing room, _noona is waiting for me._

Mingyu responds, _ah forgot she was here. Have fun (:_

Seokmin send a thumbs up sticker as he hurries off.

Back at home, as Seokmin finishes changing into his pajamas, he asks Sunjin about her friend Krystal.

"She's good, she's good," Sunjin calls in a voice that carries. "Seoul has made her a little different, I guess? She's so big-city now."

Seokmin peeps out of the bathroom to make a concerned face. 

"It's not bad. She's just not as fun as she used to be. She's serious now." Then Sunjin does a serious face to demonstrate. Then she's wasting no time opening the soju she brought back and pouring two shots as Seokmin hurries to the table, and then she says, "You didn't get serious, so there's no excuse for her."

"I didn't get serious?" Seokmin asks, taking his shot. 

"No," she emotes. "Did you think you did?"

Seokmin shrugs. He feels a little serious. He feels a little harder-shelled than he used to be. It's getting better, but he feels a little lonely. He doesn't want her to think he's hiding some great despair though, so he says, "I was hoping you'd say I became sophisticated. Like, the big city refined me. I have class above my station now, you know?"

"Hmm. Sorry." She makes a buzzer sound. "You smell like horse poop and you picked me up at the train station in sweat pants, Knight or not."

"Harsh."

"You love me 'cause I'm honest," she says dreamily. Then, "How was work, by the way?"

For some reason, thoughts of Mingyu hit him very hard when she asks that. He says, "Oh, it was fine."

"Just fine?" she asks.

"It was, like, good," Seokmin says. He thinks about Mingyu's mouth again, and how it's complicated, but how, gosh, he really thinks something might be there. More than just the sex and the lust and the rivalry, the making out in dark corners whenever they get a second. He thinks that maybe he and Mingyu have things in common, maybe could be more than just a secret. Maybe. It's hard to tell, but his heart is feeling it right now. He feels like he misses Mingyu, and it's been like two hours since the last time they were dry humping on the clock.

Sunjin looks at him incredulously while she pours him a shot, so dramatically that the shot glass overflows and Seokmin has to steady her hand. She says, "Ew, what?"

"Nothing, I just said it was good," Seokmin says, gathering himself, taking the shot. "Yeah, the horses were awesome, sorry. It was a fun night. I'm excited for you to come watch tomorrow," he beams. "I really think you're gonna love it."

"No, what was that a minute ago?" she asks.

Seokmin pours Sunjin's shot. He's not going to talk about it, because he knows what she is going to say. They talk about music instead, and then Seokmin is saying, "So, no one can prove this, but we have this bartender who knows things that other people don't know. And he insists that this K-Pop star I've never heard of was sitting in my section the other week." 

Sunjin is so impressed. "I mean, famous people _have_ to come to the show, right? We're in Seoul, everyone is famous, first of all. And your show is like, established. A ton of people see it."

"It's more of a tourist thing, though," Seokmin says. "Famous people are... busy."

"I just don't understand. I am overjoyed to get to watch these horses dance."

"But are you famous?"

"Maybe," Sunjin says in a dramatic voice.

Seokmin cackles. "Okay, miss Sunjin, what are you famous for?"

She taps her chin. "Hmm, if I was famous, it would be for something nasty. Like, world's longest toenails."

Seokmin covers his mouth like he's gonna throw up.

"Hey, attention is attention," she says, holding up her glass for a cheers.

Two more shots in, it's pushing hard at the insides of Seokmin's lips, and he decides that he trusts Sunjin enough to let it free, regardless of what he knows he'll hear. 

He barely has to say anything, he just sighs, "So."

"What."

"It's my boss."

"No!" Sunjin shouts right away, complete with hand motions, very loud in Seokmin's little apartment. "No, no no! Gross, Seokmin, no!"

He puts his hands on her shoulders and laughs. "Noona, oh my god. It's not that bad. He's only like two years older than me. And boss, I guess boss is a weird word, because he's also a regular cast member. He's just, like, in charge."

"You can't do that," she whines, eyes squinting shut imploringly.

"I already am, so."

"Seokmin," she says as she groans. "This is very weird. What's his name?"

"Kim Mingyu," Seokmin says quietly, surely.

"Is he gonna break your heart?" she asks, looking at him very closely, drunkenly.

"No," Seokmin says. No, no, no. "He's better. He's different."

"Okay!" Sunjin shouts. "I worry about you!"

"I know you do," Seokmin says. "But you don't have to."

Sunjin holds a hand up to her forehead like he gives her a headache. "You and boys are such a stinky combination."

"Not every time," Seokmin sounds like he's making excuses. "I'm getting better. Mingyu, I swear, it sounds bad, but he's different. He's really respectful, Noona. He really gives a shit. Well, he has been a jerk, but he apologized."

"Oh, Seok-ah," She says like he is killing her. "Are you telling me this one isn't six foot two and caked?"

Seokmin laughs. Like, really laughs, hard enough for her to get it. That he is. But he says, "No, he's not like that though. You'll meet him, and you'll get it. He's so nice. So smart. Loves horses. Big heart." Seokmin is drunk. "Big uh. Boobs." He laughs at himself.

"You're incorrigible," she slurs whinily. "Remember you're my baby brother when you speak, please." She takes another shot. It's so funny. She says, "I guess I'll take your word for it. I look forward to meeting him. And I don't mean to be judgmental. I just think about the, like, three dudes in a row who ruined your life." Another shot, she's really incredible. "Men. I really used to think gay guys were better."

Peals of laughter from both of them cascading down from the ceiling like twinkle lights. "No," Seokmin says. "No way. Just me."

"Just you," she says, slapping his shoulder more than patting it. "Just my perfect angel dongsaeng."

♞

The guy at the ticket booth doesn't even glance up when Soonyoung and Wonu show their staff passes. He just says, "You'll be cheering for the Green Knight tonight."

Soonyoung says, "Actually, we want Black and White."

"It's generally, like, assigned," says the ticket guy blandly. He's not even trying to be on theme, his high and tight haircut and glasses look weird with the crimson tunic.

"But we work here," Soonyoung says. He shoves Wonu slightly in front of him. "He _plays_ the Black and White Knight."

The ticket guy gives him a look that says, _obviously you don't, since you're about to go be in the audience_ , but Wonu butts in. "We'll just go sit in his section either way. We know all the Serfs."

"Okay, fine," says the ticket guy, not like he cares. Still, Wonu offers Soonyoung a little high-five below the glass of the booth.

The circumstances could be better, but Soonyoung is excited to be here. He's never seen the show from the outside before, and he's only ever eaten the food past its shelf date, when the kitchen lets the employees have at it for free. Yeah, Soonyoung and Wonu have eaten their fair share of expired King Alfonso's Finest Sponge Cake, but what does it taste like fresh? Tonight, he will find out.

Okay, he's trying to psych himself up, because it's not just Wonu who is being really strict about what Soonyoung is allowed to do while he's here. After the show, they'll let him go backstage to see all his friends and his sweet little horses before they all go for barbecue, but he knows how closely he's gonna be watched for what Mingyu calls _flipping behaviors_.

He feels a little like a criminal? Which is unfair, since he's actually recovering from an injury. Or, if you ask him, he _has recovered_ from an injury and is currently in the process of _staying off it_ for a couple weeks just for good measure. At least Wonu is letting him go on runs again. That's probably because the crankiness was starting to turn into something more evil. He plays wrath well.

They aren't supposed to go backstage before the show, so they arrive late with all the other Citizens and stream into the crowded entry room. It's just a big gift shop, but all the registers are mounted behind these big polished wood counters, and the rooms are lit by sconces, and there are all sorts of coats-of-arms and swords mounted everywhere, so it seems fancy. In one corner of the room, a small line has formed by King Alfonso's throne. It's like 20,000 won for a commemorative photo with him. Wonu's eyeing it.

"Should we?" Soonyoung asks.

"You think we could get it for free?" Wonu says.

"Obviously," Soonyoung says as he takes Wonu's hand with the one that isn't in a sling and drags him over to the line.

It's funny, because Seungcheol is so invested in being an attentive King that he doesn't notice them until it's their turn, when they're standing on both sides of him and Soonyoung is saying in a breathy voice, "Your Majesty."

Seungcheol grins for a second with his huge goofy mouth, but then he snaps right back into character and says, "Greetings. Thank you for attending my Tournament of Champions."

Wonu bites his lips in to keep from laughing, but Soonyoung can't help it. He says, "Your Majesty, it's a great honor. Can I sit in your lap?"

"Absolutely not," Seungcheol says beatifically.

The photographer recognizes them too, but she just seems vaguely perplexed as she ushers them closer for their photo.

Soonyoung and Wonu both lean in and kiss Seungcheol's cheeks on opposite sides, and as they pull away, Seungcheol hisses through his kingly smile, "Now everybody's gonna think they can touch me."

Wonu laughs for real, and Soonyoung says, "Awesome! Bye, Your Majesty!"

"Enjoy the Games," Seungcheol calls gently with a final little nod as Soonyoung takes Wonu's hand again and pulls him toward the tavern.

They actually have to get in line for drinks, which feels unfair given their status. Soonyoung _is_ the Duke of Galicia, after all. It's not written into the script, but he's _pretty sure_ he's the King's bastard brother. Bastard behavior-wise, not lineage-wise, though, actually, who knows? Anyway, if you read between the lines, it totally makes sense that the Duke of Galicia would be pissed off to see his brother celebrating his wealth and prowess when he didn't even invite his bastard brother to the party. No one even asked him to send a Champion to compete. No wonder he turned evil. In Soonyoung's opinion (and the opinion of lots of the little kids whose paper crowns he signs after shows), he's actually a sympathetic character. Plus, Wonu is a real Knight, even when he's not in costume.

Jeonghan makes up for the wait when he doesn't even ask before sliding two huge plastic cups of strawberry soju slushie across the counter. "Dragon's Blood," he lilts. "Happy to see you two. It's been boring without you."

"Wow, thanks Hyung," Soonyoung says, slurping off the top of his drink.

Jeonghan gags. "I'm not your hyung," he says. "That's disgusting."

"Wow, the service here sucks," Soonyoung chuckles to Wonu.

Wonu says, "Yeah, thanks Hyung." He tries a sip of his drink that makes him scrunch his face up like a mouse, and then he says pleasantly, "Geez, we're gonna be shitfaced from this."

"Lots of alcohol is the only way to get through it," Jeonghan nods as he plops straws into their cups.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Soonyoung gapes, feigning offense.

"Yeah, look, he almost died for this show," Wonu adds. He points to the sling.

"Doesn't mean it's fun to watch sober," Jeonghan says.

"Maybe mean little bartenders aren't the target demographic," Wonu says.

"Oh yeah, maybe," Jeonghan sneers.

"Okay, we have to go get our seats. I love you, Jeonghan-hyung," Soonyoung says. "Say it back."

"Enjoy the Games!" Jeonghan says in his customer service voice.

They sit in the Black and White Knight's section, attended by a female Serf they haven't met before.

Soonyoung really wants to tell her that he's usually the Duke so that he can get special treatment, but Wonu thinks they should try to experience tonight like regular Citizens.

"My parents always tell their Serf who they are when they come here," Soonyoung argues. "They always get extra free shit."

"Do we need extra free shit?" Wonu asks. He looks down at the gray Medieval Times hoodie he's wearing currently.

"Okay, no, fine," Soonyoung says. "It's just weird to be here, and not. You know. There." He looks longingly down from his seat into the arena. Right at the place in the sand where he dislocated his shoulder, as easy as making a fist.

If you ask him, he's been coping pretty well for the past three weeks. If you ask Wonu, he'd probably say that it's been rocky. Both are probably true. Soonyoung has trouble being sedentary and he gets bored and restless. He's anxious about becoming weak and forgetting how to do anything. He's eating really badly and his head hurts from watching TV.

He's gotten frustrated enough to shout a couple of times, though that might have been useful. He and Wonu have a couple years of little resentments that have been building up, and having nothing to do for a few weeks has brought them to the surface. Like pimples. But like pimples, it feels good to pop them. Existing is more comfortable without all that crap inside you. It's actually been good, the fight they had about the toothpaste tube that actually was about how Wonu thinks Soonyoung should respect shared resources more, and the time Soonyoung snapped at Wonu, saying, "You always want me to be quiet."

Wonu had looked at him with an unreadable expression for a second before saying, "I don't want you to be quiet. I want you to take a break."

Soonyoung made a noise like a frustrated cat, and Wonu said, "If you figure out what you like about being quiet, it'll suck less when you have to do it. It's not like I want you to shut up." There was something unspoken there. Soonyoung couldn't figure it out exactly, just that Wonu was looking at him intensely, like he wanted to be sure Soonyoung heard.

It actually meant something to Soonyoung, because everybody else always does want him to shut up, at least a little, at least subconsciously. Not Wonu, though. Wonu wants Soonyoung to be comfortable.

Well, it wasn't comfortable for Soonyoung to stay home and count down the minutes until he was allowed to go back to work. He wasn't comfortable just waiting around for the next little jolt of adrenaline in his life. So he really has been trying, and he thinks it's starting to get easier.

Soonyoung is never going to _want_ to stay at home, but it's nice to do it with Wonu if he has to. They don't have anything going on, no plans to make or work to do, so they've just been talking. They've even been having deep conversations, which is crazy. Wonu makes Soonyoung a little bit crazy, because he's actually got a lot going on inside and Soonyoung actually wants to know about it.

In all the talking that they've been doing and all the relaxing, their relationship feels different these days. Different in a good way, but heavier. They've been so busy every minute since they've met, running to and from work and squeezing in a social life when they can, working out and seeing family and doing chores as occasionally as possible.

They are always together, and have been for over two years. They met during the auditions to open this place; they chatted in line and then high-fived when they both got callbacks, and when they both got hired, Soonyoung picked Wonu up and spun him around. By opening night, they were apartment shopping. But Soonyoung is realizing now that a lot of their relationship has been convenient. They go to the same places, they do the same things. It's easier to do life alongside another person, and Wonu and Soonyoung share space well. Also, they love each other, and that's always been important, but it maybe hasn't always been the _most_ important. They have sex a lot, but sometimes it still feels like they're best friends.

However, something seems a little different in Wonu lately, a little more intimate. He's been paying attention in a different kind of way, looking at Soonyoung like he's really special. Not that he hasn't always done that, because he _has_ , he's an excellent boyfriend, but it feels all romantic all of a sudden.

There's all this stuff going on now. Staying in bed until almost lunchtime talking about nothing. Or, they got all dressed up for a date, took a long time getting ready and went to a place with real waiters. Wonu looked _so_ happy, he was doing that thing where he was trying not to smile and making himself smile even bigger the whole time. Or the other day, when Wonu suggested they take a shower together so he could help Soonyoung wash his hair. Soonyoung thought he was being coy, but then that was all they did. It was so sweet it almost made him sick, Wonu being so careful and kind as he helped Soonyoung rinse the water out. Soonyoung can absolutely do it one handed, or even two handed, since his shoulder is basically fine now, but it clearly wasn't about that. It was Wonu trying to do something nice for Soonyoung because he cared about him. Once the feeling passed, Soonyoung realized that the nausea was actually just fondness.

Wonu's been _really_ good to Soonyoung since he hurt himself. Also, he's been agonizing about his family, getting kind of defensive because, he says, he wants his parents to know that he and Soonyoung are together, not because he cares if they know he dates guys, but because he's really proud of their relationship. He got all meek about it and acted like he was admitting something when he told Soonyoung that. It was so weird, because Soonyoung would say that to anyone. He'd say it to somebody on the metro, if he had a reason to. He'd just be like, "Hey, convenience store employee. This is my boyfriend, and I'm proud of our relationship." But it was something big for Wonu.

That was the first time Soonyoung thought about it, but he thought about it a lot after that. The truth is, Wonu _loves_ Soonyoung. Wonu isn't Soonyoung's boyfriend because they go to all the same places and find each other sexy. That helps, but Wonu is actually Soonyoung's boyfriend because he thinks that Soonyoung is a cool and interesting person. He thinks so even more now than he used to. Anyway, the knowledge trampled Soonyoung like a horse.

Soonyoung, well, he came out when he was really young, and he's always been pretty good at getting attention. 'Cause he's been doing gymnastics since he was six, so he's got big muscles and people like that.

What people do not always like is Soonyoung's personality.

He's self-aware. He's not an idiot. He knows he's crazy.

He's like one of those frogs that, if given unlimited food, will eat unlimitedly, and eventually explode. But with everything. It's hard for people to be too near him for too long.

He had never thought about being with Wonu in a less functional way because he didn't think that was what Wonu wanted. Well, he didn't think it was what anyone would want. He's a pretty shallow person, it wasn't that hard to get his head in the right place about it. It's not like he's complaining about the last couple years, they've been awesome. But yeah. He loves Wonu too, in that weird way that makes him feel weak and ready to have his guts torn open.

It took him longer to realize it, and seems to bother him less than it does Wonu. But that's what's charming about Wonu: he's always worked up about something, and the reason is always really precious, once you get him to admit it.

Once Soonyoung figured out that Wonu was really, really in love with him, he didn't torture him by making him keep thinking about it all alone. He just said something. They were waking up slow one lazy morning, and Wonu was looking at Soonyoung with the sparkles in his eyes and the trying-not-to-smile smile, and Soonyoung thought he could read Wonu's mind, like Junhui and Minghao can do. It was so obvious. Wonu was actively loving Soonyoung, just because he existed. And wow, it was very cool.

Soonyoung said, "Hey, babe. Baby. Baby boy."

"Hi," Wonu said.

"Do you want to get married someday?"

Ha ha. Soonyoung watched Wonu almost pass out, but pretend to be chill. Really, really charming. He made a sound, like maybe a small version of the sound he'd make if he was struck by lightning. Yeah, a finger-in-the-socket sound.

Soonyoung said, "I've been noticing lately. I like being around you. I already knew that, obviously, but I'm noticing more. I don't really wanna fuck around and pretend like there might be anybody else anymore."

Wonu's soul was still re-entering his physical body, but he managed to squeak, "You think that?"

"I do," Soonyoung said meaningfully. "Do you?"

"Y... yes. I think that. Wait."

"So you agree that we should get married someday?" Soonyoung resisted the urge to hold an imaginary microphone up to Wonu's face. Have a little reverence for the moment, for Wonu's sake.

"That... Yes," Wonu said, trying to wrap his mind around it. Then a little laugh. "Soonyoung, this isn't how I wanted to get engaged."

Soonyoung laughed, and it came out really loud and sharp, but that was okay. Wonu obviously didn't mind things like that if they were here right now. He said, "Don't worry, don't worry. We aren't engaged." He gesticulated between them. "We just can be someday. I know you probably wanna do something crazy, and I will _not_ take that away from you. My mom told me that no one should ever be completely surprised by a proposal, anyway. Also, this is me helping you, because I know you'd never have the guts to ask for my hand in marriage if you weren't a hundred percent sure you had permission. But yeah, I've been thinking about it, and you have permission. Whenever."

Wonu had a lot of emotions really fast, and then he swallowed, and then he said, "Well." A deep breath, and then quiet as a thought, "okay."

"Okay," Soonyoung said brightly. "Glad we had this talk. May I take you out for breakfast?"

"Of course," Wonu said, and then he sat up and stretched, his nice broad chest and his nice strong arms. He smiled at Soonyoung as he did it. Just warm and close and happy. Then he held Soonyoung's hand the whole day.

The show is surprisingly good. Not, well, that the show isn't good, but with the way they've had to rearrange the cast, and with Seungkwan playing the Yellow Knight and Mingyu as the Duke, it's different than what Soonyoung is used to. He's not expecting it to be perfect.

But everybody is on it, and the show is exciting, and Soonyoung and Wonu drink a lot of alcohol and get really loud and sort of forget to watch for flubs, for technicality, and instead just get invested in this story that they know as well as anybody down there.

By the end, their Serf knows who they are, because they can't help but recite their lines to each other, just a little. Honestly? When Wonu, pink-cheeked, tells Soonyoung hoarsely that he knows nothing of honor? It's really hard not to just start making out with him.

Soonyoung holds the climactic fight between the Duke of Galicia and the Black and White Knight very dear to himself for obvious reasons. Getting to fight his boyfriend with a real sword does not get old. He thinks he and Wonu are very good at it.

Therefore, he's not expecting a lot from Seokmin and Mingyu as the Black and White Knight and the Duke. It's nothing against them (they're both awesome, of course, and Soonyoung misses them _bad_ ), but Soonyoung and Wonu are the ones who have been doing it all this time, and they are the ones with the chemistry that makes their fight so crazy every time. But even though Mingyu can't do gymnastics, he is strong enough to swing his huge body on and off his horses like it's nothing. He can make his horses rear and canter menacingly and can boom his lines out like a totally different, much meaner person than he really is. And Seokmin embodies the Black and White Knight in a different way than Wonu, but his performance is just as powerful. Rather than sober and dutiful and sturdy like Wonu, Seokmin's Champion is excited to win, fueled by love for the people he protects. They are good, and when they meet in the center to fight at the end of the show, with all the actors in the arena and triumphant music blaring, Soonyoung is riveted.

Mingyu and Seokmin, it turns out, absolutely do have chemistry. They've even re-choreographed a couple parts of the fight, because Mingyu's Duke is all large, brutal movements with his big big sword, and Seokmin is playful and lithe. There's a part where Mingyu goes to plunge his sword through Seokmin's body, but Seokmin rolls out of the way and Mingyu's sword gets stuck in the sand. It gives Seokmin the chance to get behind Mingyu, but before he can slash him from behind, Mingyu spins around forcefully and gets Seokmin instead.

Honestly, it's so cool. For the nicest person in the world, Mingyu's really good at being bad. And for two people who really weren't cool the last time Soonyoung was here two weeks ago, Mingyu and Seokmin seem to be getting along tonight. The swords are blunt and the armor they wear is actually pretty functional, but still, a sword-plunging-into-the-ground move takes some real trust, practice, planning.

As the lights go down, Soonyoung asks Wonu, "Did you know Seokmin and Mingyu-hyung were cool?"

Wonu scoffs drunkenly. He is such a lightweight, and Soonyoung wouldn't put it past Jeonghan to have targeted him on purpose. "Mingyu-hyung wanted him dead last time I checked," Wonu says. Then, "Well, Hyung doesn't want anyone dead. But if he did? Seokmin."

Just as Soonyoung thought. He's never seen Mingyu act the way he has toward Seokmin. Worse than indifferent, when Mingyu is usually a person who is gentle to the point of naivety. Hardworking and open and innocent, like everyone's as simple-hearted as a horse. But not towards Seokmin.

♞

Seokmin and Sunjin have finished their tour of the building. After doing the honors of helping Seokmin tack up Bermudo (something for which she has a natural affinity that must have just skipped Seokmin), she's properly excited for the show. She bought a shirt that she pulled on over her other shirt, and she keeps saying "Wow," and "I didn't know it was like this," and "This is so _fancy_ ," at everything.

They haven't run into Mingyu yet, though they've met most everybody else, and Seokmin has introduced her with as much enthusiasm as she deserves. It's okay, Mingyu's very busy, and they'll all go to barbecue later, where Sunjin will really be able to see that Mingyu is a sweet and good person. He may be six foot two and caked, he may have been a jerk in the past, but Seokmin knows what he deserves now. He's excited for that, even if Mingyu acts like he's just Seokmin's boss the whole time, which is just as likely as anything else. His good nature shines through, his kindness and Knightly attention to the people he looks after. It will be so nice for Sunjin to meet him.

Yet, apart from the show, Seokmin barely even sees him in passing. He doesn't come to the dressing room afterwards, despite the fact that he wears a long cloak and a ton of black eye makeup as the Duke. He doesn't even stop by, and Seokmin's noona is texting him, and he's trying to hurry to meet her, and he's getting a little stressed out. 

He runs back to the barn, and Mingyu is there, of course, his cloak off but the rest of his costume still on. He looks very intense, the rings of black around his eyes, the sunken-painted cheekbones. Though, the intensity only goes so far, since he's currently hugging Ramiro's face. Seokmin approaches gently enough not to startle them. Mingyu looks up at him quietly. Seokmin feels awkward for some reason, but says, "Hey, I just wanted to say hi, I feel like I haven't seen you except, like, in character today."

"Hi," Mingyu says a bit difficultly, letting Ramiro go and standing up with a big breath. "Sorry, Seokmin, it's been a weird day. How are you?"

"Oh, pretty good," Seokmin says. "My noona loved the show." Seokmin tries to reach out a hand, but Mingyu doesn't take it, so Seokmin drops it.

"Um, see you at barbecue?" Seokmin asks.

Mingyu avoids his eyes. "Actually, I have to... I have to stay late tonight."

"For what?" Seokmin asks, kind of accusing, because, like, that doesn't make sense.

"Sancho's foot. He needs another bath."

"Then, come after?" Seokmin says. "I didn't know there was anything happening with Sancho's foot."

Mingyu doesn't want to lie. He doesn't like to, Seokmin knows this. So he backtracks, says, "Seokmin, I'm really tired. I need to skip it today."

Seokmin doesn't know what he thinks, but he knows that he feels that like a weight dropped in his chest, and he doesn't need to hear any more. He says, "Okay. Bye then. Rest up," and turns to go before Mingyu can reply.

It sucks to be frustrated and distracted at barbecue, because everyone else is having a great time.

Soonyoung and Wonu are here for the first time since Soonyoung got hurt. Wonu's drunk and smiling like he's full of secrets, big eyes more often than not on Soonyoung, who has blue hair and his arm in a sling but is otherwise the very same person whose energy has been so sorely missed. Soonyoung's got a lot of feedback about the show, which might be a little scary given Soonyoung's penchant for perfectionism, but most of what he has to say is really good. He echoes the things Seokmin thinks: that they've all pulled together better than anyone could have hoped, that this team is more than the sum of its parts. He says he's impressed. He says, "I guess you all don't need me anymore," and everyone shouts at him.

Seokmin wants to shout too, wants to cheer for Soonyoung's expedient return, but all he can do is trace the motions.

And everybody loves Sunjin, of course. She's just like Seokmin except that she's a beautiful lady, and everybody here likes Seokmin. He wants to be recounting stories with her, singing crazy duets with her like they used to do as kids, acting stuff out and noisemaking.

He's just bothered.

He's hardly even hungry for his meat, and that's saying something. If he were a horse, that would be the kind of sign that would get the vet called in. But he's just a human, so everybody lets him be, maybe doesn't even notice him amongst the chaos. The sound of the room flattens out in his ears, tinny and wide, and he just stops listening for a minute.

Until Sunjin elbows him in the ribs, hard, and whispers in his ear. "Why are you depressed?"

Seokmin just groans and gives her a look. He can't explain it right now, they're at dinner. And she's just gonna tell him what she tells him. That this guy isn't right for him. That this guy is gonna hurt him. That he needs to look past Mingyu's sexy body and instead go inside, to the heart of him, and see if that's really what he deserves.

She gives him a look back that's like, _then stop acting weird._

He rolls his eyes, takes another couple shots of soju, and tries to let it go.

He doesn't, really, even though he puts his face back on and starts participating in conversation again.

Then Wonu, pink-cheeked, turns to Seokmin and says, "You and Mingyu looked like you were really getting along tonight." Maybe the question has a hint of forwardness to it, maybe Wonu's just drunk. "What changed?"

And Seokmin says, "Honestly? Nothing."

And then he's just ready to go home and hang out with his sister.

♞

They're both on Seokmin's bed in their pajamas. Sunjin has her hair back in a braid and is wearing a really cute matched set of polka dot pajamas. Seokmin is wearing a big shirt and sweatpants. They both have sheet masks on, and Sunjin lit a candle that Seokmin forgot he had, and they are relaxing.

After barbecue yesterday, Seokmin needed some time to think about some things on his own before he let his perfect beautiful noona get in his head and scramble them around. So he told her he was just tired from work being hard, and she said "Woof, I get that! It looks brutal out there," and he went to sleep unmolested.

Today, he felt a little better when he woke up, and they had a lot of plans, so he almost didn't think about it at all. Shopping and sight-seeing and walking by the Han River and eating a hundred meals. Sunjin does this every time she comes to Seoul, acts like she lives in some little hamlet and doesn't have access to nice things except when she's with Seokmin. But he likes it; he doesn't get out and shop for fun much either. Used to be because he couldn't afford anything, and now it's because he's too busy.

Sunjin dragged Seokmin around all day. Between all the bingsu-eating and skincare-product-comparing and river-gazing, he's mostly been too busy to think about Mingyu. Which has been really cool.

But he knew this was coming. She wasn't gonna let him off the hook forever, because she takes her responsibility as his feelings excavator very seriously. He knows what's coming when she sings, " _So_ , Seokminnie."

"Uh-huh," he says stiffly, trying not to dislodge the sheet mask from his face.

"Why didn't I end up meeting your beefcake guy last night?"

Seokmin sighs through his nose. "Well, he's really busy," he tries. But, he doesn't know why he's being disingenuous, other than the fact that Sunjin is gonna tell him something he already knows, and probably needs to hear. "Well. He was avoiding me."

"I thought that was it," she says, winning already. "Well, he clearly hurt your feelings, so I'm not gonna say anything."

A moment. 

"Except."

"Uh-huh," Seokmin says, like he knew was coming.

"You have way too good an ass, way too much talent, and way too sparkling a personality to waste it on somebody who avoids you. You should be with somebody who bends over backwards for you, because that's what anybody who knows what they have would do."

Seokmin sighs. "But I really like him," he says.

"Why?" she says, like she expects it to be hard for Seokmin to think of things.

But it isn't hard. And they aren't even shallow things. He says, "I like how competent he is about things he knows, but how he's actually kind of innocent about a lot of things. I like that he's passionate. I think he's honest, in a lot of ways. A lot of important ways."

"But not every way."

"Not every way," Seokmin confesses. "But I think he really cares. Almost too much, maybe. I think he does weird things because he cares too much about everything and doesn't know what to do about it."

"So you're just gonna excuse him from avoiding you? He cares too much to show up when you ask him to, is that it?"

Yeah, that, and the rest. Seokmin can't tell her about how Mingyu tried to kill him with a real sword. There's no way to defend that. But maybe there shouldn't be.

This just slips out. "He doesn't tell me a lot of things." Ugh, what a thing to admit. He wishes he could eat those words back up.

"Like what?" Sunjin asks.

"Like, a lot," Seokmin says. "Like about his life."

"Do you think he has... secrets?" she asks.

"No," Seokmin says. "That's what's weird about it. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have secrets. He just doesn't open up about anything."

Sunjin sighs. She turns to him, her mask unsticking from one side of her face, her eyes looking a bit uncanny through the little holes as she tries to talk to him without moving her mouth. "I hate telling you this, Seokmin-ah. I don't want to."

"But I have bad taste," he says, to spare her. "I know. I always think it's different and it's never different." He's repeating her lines, but maybe he means them, too. Then again, maybe he doesn't mean it; it actually feels different this time, completely new and much more safe. Mingyu may be the way that Mingyu is, but he isn't cold. If Seokmin got overwhelmed as easily as Mingyu does, this whole thing would be too much for him, too. It already is too much. It's really intense. But despite it all, despite how it sounds, Seokmin doesn't think Mingyu is cold. He's warm, really, he just guards that side of himself sometimes.

But, at a certain point, after being stupid the way Seokmin has been stupid and being hurt the way he has been hurt, walking willingly into bad situations, opening himself to bad things, asking for them, Seokmin might not be the best judge anymore of what's good for him. Even if it feels good, different. Maybe he's still wrong.

"I'm not trying to tell you what to do," Sunjin says. She gives up on the mask, peels it off and crumples it and tosses it across the room to deal with later, totally classy. Full range of facial motion back, she says, "But I do not have a good feeling about it."

"Me neither, kind of," Seokmin says. "I swear, I promise it feels different. But I didn't like last night. Him avoiding me and refusing to meet you."

"Emotionally unavailable," Sunjin nods. "I don't trust him as far as I can throw him. And I saw him riding around last night. I couldn't throw him."

"No one could," Seokmin agrees as he peels his mask off, too. "He's immovable."

"Exactly."

♞

Jeonghan: are you on drugs? I know a good place 4 rehab

Seungkwan: I’m sorry have you seen my banging body and excellent complexion

This is the peak performance level of a 1.) full time athlete 2.) person who occasionally has a couple extremely classy glasses of wine with dinner and is otherwise sober

And you would know that if u cared about me

Jeonghan: then why can’t u afford to go on vacation with me n joshie

Seungkwan: literally not ur business

Jeonghan: I’m going to spread rumors about you

Seungkwan: try it

Seungkwan puts his phone away. He’s actually too busy to deal with Jeonghan’s love language (wickedness) right now, as much as he appreciates the attention. He’s with Captain at the moment, brushing out his mane, and that’s much more pressing.

Captain will always be more pressing. He is old as shit, but he is very nice, and as of a month ago, he is Seungkwan’s horse.

Seungkwan’s lessons have turned more into informal barn hangouts since being promoted. He rides a horse every day now, so he keeps his weekly meetings with Dahyun mostly as an excuse to see her. She has become one of his best friends, and also, his life's mission is increasingly becoming to kiss as many horses as possible.

So this one week, he was administering his kisses to all of the horses, and he arrived at the stall of Captain, this very old gelding who never wanted to do anything except get his face patted. Seungkwan’s always liked him so much, and he told Dahyun that. “Captain’s a very cool guy.”

Dahyun’s face fell, and she said, “He's such a special man. Ugh. I’m not supposed to tell anyone this, but.”

“Oh no.”

“His owner actually stopped paying for his board and nobody can get in contact with him.”

“Oh my god. His owner _abandoned_ him? But he’s so cool.”

Dahyun sighed. “It happens sometimes. He’s really old and expensive. He’s not, like, worth anything anymore. It’s easier to leave him and make us deal with it than for them to put him down themselves.”

“Put him down?” Seungkwan asked hoarsely, his stomach dropping to the floor. Not _Captain_.

“Unless they can sell him, but, he’d probably get, like, sold to—”

“No no. I can’t hear that.”

“It’s really sad,” Dahyun whispered earnestly, but also sort of like she had faced this before and was resigned to it. After all, what else could they do with no one to pay his board? There are only so many stalls available, and Seungkwan has heard about how stupid expensive it is to keep a horse in the city.

Yet, knowing all that, he asked, “Um, how much is his board?”

Dahyun hesitated, which was not a good sign. “Over a million won a month.”

Yikes. Seungkwan’s rent is less than that. But Captain was still nuzzling Seungkwan with his big fuzzy face, his lower lip all loose. Captain trusted Seungkwan. He trusted _people_ to keep him safe. He was wise and old and kind and deserving. Suddenly, there was nothing else Seungkwan could do. “If I could, like, find some money. Could he stay?”

“Of course,” Dahyun said. Her voice got really serious. “Could you actually afford that?”

“No,” Seungkwan laughed. “But maybe I could figure something out.”

And he did. Which is, he borrowed the first million won from his mom and told her it was because Hansol needed to be bailed out of jail. Then he just stopped spending money.

Hansol is helping, because he’s working now, and Seungkwan’s been mostly supporting them for the last year while Hansol was focusing really hard on finishing school. And it’s not like Seungkwan needed to be paid back for that, or ever expected it, but he is grateful that Hansol is coming through, even though he’s still afraid of horses, even Captain. Though he is warming up to him.

In fact, Seungkwan is grooming Captain, nice and slow and gentle, getting the dust out of his coat, making his mane and thinning tail hang straight and shiny, and Hansol peeps his head into the barn.

“Ah, hi,” Hansol says. “I brought coffee.”

“Oh my god, you can’t buy coffee,” Seungkwan says, because that four thousand won literally belongs to this quiet old horse before it belongs to Seungkwan, but then he sees the cup and realizes that he does really want it. “No, I’m sorry. Thank you, honey.”

“You’re welcome,” Hansol says with that unaffected smile as he hands the cup over. “Hi Captain.”

Captain starts nuzzling Hansol. Hansol startles for a second, and Captain startles too, but Seungkwan pats his long face and gets really close to him and whispers, “That’s your friend,” and Captain tries again.

This time Hansol lets him, and even though he looks uncomfortable, he gives Captain the pats on the face that he deserves.

♞

In the dressing room on Wednesday, Mingyu sits next to Seokmin. He says, "How was your sister?"

Seokmin gives him a look that hurts him, and doesn't say anything.

"Sorry," Mingyu says quickly.

"You should be," Seokmin says.

It's really hard to admit, but Mingyu says, "I got anxious."

"So?" Seokmin says. He gets this way sometimes, challenging. For a person who exudes such niceness, he's good at sticking up for himself too. Against Mingyu. Again.

Mingyu lowers his voice, because Jihoon is over there with headphones in and Minghao and Junhui are talking in the corner. He says, "Meeting your family is," and then he doesn't know how to finish his sentence. Meeting Seokmin's family is stressful. Scary. He's never done it before. It's too soon and too much. It's gonna be so embarrassing later, when Seokmin figures out he doesn't really want Mingyu around, and his sister's got a face to put to the name when it comes time to say mean things about him. Mingyu doesn't even know what they are to one another, he can't just start meeting noonas like it's nothing.

Seokmin's face is cold and set. Forcefully, he says, "It's not about meeting family. It's about you being my friend and my boss and welcoming my guest to the show we all do together. And it wasn't just me, you ditched Soonyoung and Wonu too." He makes it sound so obvious.

Just as forceful but a little less quiet, he goes on. "You never tell me anything. You're so unavailable. You could have told me it was weird for you but instead you embarrassed me in front of my noona."

"It's very--" Mingyu starts, but Seokmin doesn't let him.

"I really don't care about excuses, Hyung. I thought you were a different person than that cold guy who ignored me for," he's getting loud, "Three months! And then tried to _kill me_? With a _real sword_? I thought the real you was the kind guy who made me feel like you really cared about me."

Everyone is looking now, Jihoon and Minghao and Seungkwan and Chan. Mingyu's face is extremely hot.

Seokmin says, "But the real you is actually the cold one. And my ass is way too good to have to deal with this."

"I'm sorry," Mingyu starts. He wants to say why, what for, but Seokmin is going on.

"No. I don't want to hear it anymore. You say it all the time, but I don't belive you anymore." Even though he sounds sturdy and serious and assertive, Seokmin is wiping tears from his eyes. "Can you pick somebody else to be the Champion? I don't wanna fight you." His voice falls at the end, like he's really tired. He's already walking out, and then he's gone. 

Mingyu takes a few breaths without looking away from the chair Seokmin just left empty. He can feel all the eyes on him, the staticky silence in the room.

As soon as he trusts his voice to be steady, he looks over at Seungkwan, who is politely going back to his own tasks. "Hey Seungkwan."

Seungkwan looks over at Mingyu with an expression he's trying hard to school, wide eyes and pursed lips.

"Would you like another promotion?"

♞

"So, babe," Jihyo says.

"Yeah," Mingyu says. He doesn't look at her. He's giving Ramiro a bath after the show, taking as long as possible just to avoid having to move onto the next thing. He figures he's in trouble again.

Jihyo is hovering. "I heard what happened with Seokmin today."

He glances up at her, frowning. "Am I fired?"

"Mingyu. How many times do I have to say this. I cannot fire you."

"Cool."

"I do think you could be a little more careful about dating staff in front of God and everyone. Like, what the fuck? That's not what I meant when I said you guys should figure out how to get along."

"Well, it's not a worry anymore," Mingyu says. He gives Ramiro some pets on the face, a big kiss on the muzzle. He's so patient and concerned, even when Mingyu's not at his best.

"What did you do to him?" Jihyo asks.

"Other than try to kill him with a sword?"

"Clearly he forgave you for that."

Mingyu sighs. "He brought his sister."

"Oh yeah, I met her," Jihyo says. She can't help it, she's jumping in to help shampoo Ramiro's tail. "She was totally lovely. What happened?"

"Well, I didn't want to meet her," Mingyu says, focusing hard on rinsing Ramiro's mane and not looking elsewhere. "And he made it about how I'm emotionally unavailable, and--"

"You are."

"I'm not," Mingyu says, a bit confused.

He glances over at her and she's already giving him a nonplussed look. "You are," she says flatly.

"How can you say that?" he asks. "You know more about me than pretty much anyone."

Jihyo laughs. "That's the problem. I wouldn't say I know that much about you."

"Yes you do," Mingyu says. He's told her secrets. "I'm just not that complicated."

"Oh, shut up," she says, and she's actually laughing at him. "Stop brooding for one day and I'll believe that you're not complicated. You big idiot."

Mingyu wants to be offended, but he isn't really. He's just, well, stewing. He says, "You're wrong."

"Okay," Jihyo says. She's rinsing the shampoo out of Ramiro's tail now. "I'm wrong, and Seokmin knows things about your life, details about your past, other than the things he has personally observed by knowing you."

Mingyu feels awful, but he laughs. "Well," he says.

"Exactly. Here's what I think, if you want my opinion."

"I won't stop you," Mingyu says as he goes around to kiss Ramiro again, the only thing keeping him from going crazy at the moment.

"I think that when you guys started... whatever-ing, that Seokmin probably expected you to treat him differently than you treat other people."

"I do," Mingyu says, and then immediately, "Wait, are you approving of this?"

"Between you and me, I'm approving of this," Jihyo says. "I think you're good for each other. But you do, like, have to let him in. You're just too--"

"Scared. Yeah."

"Yeah."

"I know."

"Then fix it," she says, simple. Like it's as straightforward as rinsing the suds out of Ramiro's tail, as keeping stalls clean.

Mingyu hates to admit it, but he might have to admit that he hasn't handled any of this well. He might have to take her advice, and his own. He might have to reap what he's been sowing. He pushed Wonu to do something way harder than this, pushed him to be brave. He said that people should be willing to be loud about the things they care about. He said it with his heart.

It's really scary, though. To make yourself vulnerable. To open yourself up for rejection, when you have been rejected before. 

He doesn't want to be wrong or embarrassed, but more than that, he doesn't want to try so hard to avoid failure that he comes back around and fails anyway.

Yeah. If he cares about something, he should be willing to say it loudly. He has been too scared of losing something good to try to hold it, when all Seokmin really wanted was to be held.

He knows what he needs to do.

There's no point in hiding it anymore, if there ever really was one. It's gotten around, even if everyone's being polite about it. Mingyu knows people talk; he knows there's a gossip circuit around here. But nobody's saying anything, and Mingyu and Seokmin have barely interacted in days, not even on stage now that Seungkwan's the Champion. The first night, Mingyu went easy on Seungkwan, but it turns out he can stage fight just as well as he can ride a horse, so now they've worked out a more interesting choreography. As sparks fly between their swords, Mingyu thinks about how Seungkwan is literally saving his life every day. 

Mingyu's had his time to think about it. About what he wants with Seokmin and for himself, and it's one more chance. One more chance to prove, with finality, that he actually can be the things that he says he is. That he can be brave and strong and open-hearted, kind and clear and gentle. It's not as easy with people as it is with horses, but Mingyu knows he can do it. He's done pretending to be something he isn't. He's ready to just be the things he pretends to be.

So he brings Seokmin flowers. A really nice bouquet of multicolored carnations, just like the ones he throws to Ladies of the Realm as the romantic Blue Knight.

It's substantially embarrassing, he thinks, to show Seokmin that he means it. He gives it to him embarrassingly, as well. It's in front of Seungkwan and Junhui and Minghao, because he can't get Seokmin alone, in the low lights backstage after the show one night.

He brings it to Seokmin and doesn't let himself acknowledge the stomach-roiling humiliation until after he gets the words out that have been ringing in his head the entire show. As he was showing Sancho's opening dressage number, he thought, _This is for you._ Shouting his evil lines: "This is not the last you'll see of the Duke of Galicia!" He was thinking, _I'm sorry for the way I acted. I'm sorry for everything? I'm sorry. Seokmin, I am so sorry._ And clashing swords with Seungkwan: _I hope you can forgive me._

That's what he says, more or less. "I got you this. I hope you can forgive me someday. I'm sorry for everything."

Seokmin looks at Mingyu coldly. Mingyu meets his eyes, and the betrayal is almost its own kind of lust. Seokmin says, "Thank you, Mingyu, but I don't really want that."

So Mingyu throws the card away and leaves the flowers at the metro station on his way home.

Mingyu brings in food, skewers from the place Seokmin took him on the night Mingyu snapped. He hopes it says without saying that Seokmin taking him out that night meant something. Seokmin's kindness despite everything, though Mingyu wouldn't have admitted it right then, proved Seokmin's true goodness. He hopes it says without saying that Mingyu will try to extend that kindness too, that Seokmin deserves it, that Mingyu knows that. If Seokmin gives him the chance, he'll say all that with words too.

Mingyu sets the box on the counter in front of Seokmin. He says, "Hi, I brought you some food."

Seokmin looks up at Mingyu and it's like he's searching for something. He says, "Sorry, Hyung. I'm on a diet."

"Why?" Mingyu asks. "You don't... need to be."

Seokmin looks like he's not sure how to answer, and then he says, "Okay. Well, I don't want the food."

So Mingyu brings it up front and gives both servings, his and Seokmin's, to the Serfs.

Still, now that Mingyu's decided to be loud and vulnerable and embarrassing and honest, he is not going to give up so easily. He is not going to let himself be deterred, because he is trying to be brave for real. He is not going to let himself think about failure. A Knight wouldn't.

At the beginning of the show, King Alfonso introduces each Knight one by one as they ride in on their horses. Of the Green Knight, he says, _The undisputed master of weapons, with a temper known as the Dragon's Claw._ Of the Black and White Knight, _In prayer, humble. In service, loyal. In battle, invincible!_

Usually, of the Blue Knight, King Alfonso says, _He is renowned as a Champion of the Defenseless._ But tonight, his announcement is different. "The Blue Knight fights not only for the honor of the Realm, but to regain the heart of his one true love."

Mingyu is still playing the Duke, and Minghao is the Blue Knight, but Mingyu wants Seokmin to remember that Mingyu isn't the villain, really. He's just been playing him, for a while now. But usually, he's the Blue Knight: romantic and charming and put-together. In real life, he can be.

He could be fired for authorizing changes to the script like this, but he should be fired for a lot of things at this point. Then again, Director Park is never there, and it's just for one night, and Mingyu can't care about things like being fired if he wants to show Seokmin who he really is. He's been so unfair and ungrateful that it has to be like this now. Being half-vulnerable is not being vulnerable at all. This is the bed Mingyu has made.

If Seokmin hears the changed announcement at all, he doesn't show it.

But Seungkwan, current Champion of the Realm and full-time Harbinger of Gossip, tells Mingyu that he did, and that he hated it.

"He got all cringy," Seungkwan says as he leans in secretively. "I could see it from across the arena."

That sucks, but it can't be enough to put Mingyu off, if he's determined. Knighthood is supposed to be about strength and bravery, and right now, the strongest, bravest thing Mingyu can do is make himself very weak. He says, "Okay. I know what I have to do."

"Okay," Seungkwan says.

"Go big."

Seungkwan gives Mingyu a challenging look. "I was gonna say _back off_ , but that works too. In fact, I like your idea more. How can I help you, Hyung?"

♞

Mingyu calls a training with Jihyo on a day when one isn't usually scheduled. It doesn't strike Seokmin as strange, because Wonu and Soonyoung are back in the building this week, and it's about time to start arranging back to their original roles. 

Wonu's back to work. He's letting Seungkwan stay on as the Champion of the Realm this week as he eases back into his role. He's traded off with Minghao, which is really good, because as little as Minghao complains, it's obvious that riding every day takes a toll on him. He seems incredibly relieved to go back to just flying his falcon and fixing costumes and quietly going "Fighting!" when people need to hear it. 

Soonyoung isn't performing again yet, just training before everybody else needs the arena, and helping out, and complaining about how he's actually ready and everybody is holding him hostage. But he seems like he's joking now, he seems like he has some peace about it that he didn't have before, and that's very nice to see.

With the constant shuffling, it makes sense that Jihyo would call an extra training to hammer out details and make sure everyone's got the role they're ready to settle into for real. So no, Seokmin doesn't think it's weird.

But then he gets there, and he realizes that it is weird. Jihoon and Chan are loitering near the employee entrance, and they're both being super sketchy. First of all, they're in costume. No makeup, and still in their street clothes under their tunics, but an effort is being made. Jihoon says, "Welcome to the Tournament," even though he clearly feels extremely awkward about it, and Chan is like, "Yeah, _welcome_ ," and Seokmin's just like, "Did I miss something?"

"The gathering is thither," Jihoon emotes, gesturing down the fluorescent-lit, cement hallway toward the main backstage area and the arena.

"Well, alright," Seokmin says, and he just goes.

Soonyoung is in the dressing room, where Seokmin goes to drop his bag before heading to the arena to check in with everybody. It would make Seokmin's heart swell to see Soonyoung back in his Duke costume, all the pleather and the skullcap, if this all wasn't getting very suspicious.

"Hey, uh, was I supposed to be here already?" Seokmin says. He thought he was early, here at 2:15 for a 2:30 meeting, and usually they do these trainings in regular clothes.

"Ah, thou thinkst thou art funny?"

Seokmin is perturbed. "Soonyoung, what?"

"Soonyoung whom? I am the Duke of Galicia!" Soonyoung hops from his chair all lithe and approaches Seokmin in the weird low jangly walk that he does as the Duke.

"Okay, I see that," Seokmin says, and Soonyoung cackles nefariously.

"Come hither, or there will be dire consequences," Soonyoung says.

Seokmin huffs out a breath. He's not really feeling this right now, but he doesn't want to face any dire consequences, so he follows Soonyoung. He feels a little dumb in his t-shirt as they head toward the arena.

"The gathering is afoot," Soonyoung says. "You are awaited by the King, my bastard brother. Well, I am technically the bastard, but let's not split hairs. If I had my way, the knave wouldn't have a pebble to his name."

"I didn't know you felt that way," Seokmin says. He wants to love his own character this much.

Junhui and Minghao are hovering by the entrance to the arena, and they pull the curtains back as Soonyoung prattles on. "I'll beat him someday, you'll see."

Then they're in the arena, and there's Wonu and Seungkwan and the Serfs, and King Alfonso in his full regalia, and there's one horse, and on the horse there is Kim Mingyu.

Whatever he has to say, Seokmin has decided with finality that he doesn't want to hear it. Whatever messed up thing he's doing, getting everyone involved, that's not going to trick Seokmin into saying yes.

Seungcheol starts doing a speech, and Seokmin actually feels a bit betrayed by it. The fact that Seungcheol, his longest friend, is here using his Joseon voice to help trap Seokmin as if nothing is sacred. He hardly hears the speech, but he gets the gist of it. The fanciness of it, the imploring thous and thys of it.

Mingyu, thank heaven, steps down from Juan. Seokmin wasn't gonna live through this whole situation with Mingyu all tall like that, regal and beautiful like that, back in Blue after so long, with his hair around his shoulders and his perfect lovely gold-glowing face, his earnestness and how hard he can't help but try and his heart shining through him.

As he walks toward Seokmin, he says, "Hi."

Seokmin laughs nervously. He says, "Hi."

Mingyu rubs the back of his neck with a gauntleted hand like he's nervous, like he's realizing this is a bad idea, and honestly, Seokmin lets him think that. He doesn't help Mingyu overcome it.

But Mingyu makes eye contact, and he says, "Seokmin. I am sorry."

Seokmin knows that isn't all. Mingyu is standing feet away from him, looking at him in front of everyone, and he says, "Since I started working here, well, even before I started working here. I've tried to be the best Knight I can be. Not just here, with you guys, but with everything."

He takes a deep breath, looks for an okay to go on, but Seokmin just waits.

"I've tried to be, like, a good hyung, and all the things that I learned from horses, I've tried to put those things into being a good leader. But it turns out that people are a lot more complicated than horses. Liking, well, loving someone, is different than um. Taking care of horses. I guess that's obvious. I haven't been dealing with it well." 

"You haven't," Seokmin says, not very judgmentally.

"I haven't," Mingyu agrees. "Um, I've obstructed myself from you, because I was scared. But I'm not scared anymore."

Seokmin can see that.

"I was afraid of being embarrassing. I was scared of giving you something you could use to hurt me. You intimidate me, Seokmin. You could hurt me so badly." The last part he almost whispers. He is much closer to Seokmin now.

"This is me now," Mingyu says, looking right into Seokmin's eyes. "Trusting you."

Seokmin can see his chest heaving. He can see the blush on Mingyu's cheeks, the effort it takes to stand here, holding himself open. Still, Mingyu doesn't back off, and he doesn't break eye contact.

Seokmin could kiss him right here.

But he doesn't. His head's spinning, and everyone's looking, and he's at his _job_ , and he just can't.

"I have to go," he whispers, but as he turns to escape, he hopes it sounds like _I wish I could stay._

♞

At this point, doing something so egregiously humiliating, so against the common-sense rules of his job, so stupid and wrong and bad that he should be fired is basically a day-to-day activity for Mingyu. If that made it easier, maybe things would be different.

He earned this loss. He knows he did. But it doesn't make it easier to hold it together.

Still, no choice. He puts on his costume, the shiny cloak and the pleather, he slicks his hair back and does the corpse makeup that he won't really miss when Soonyoung gets his role back next week. He stands up tall and lets everybody politely buzz around him as if they didn't just watch him build his own trap and obliviously walk right in.

What did he think was gonna happen? He knew this was how it was. Embarrassing stuff, costumes and horses, confessions of love? That's not what people want. Mingyu is just supposed to be handsome and competent. The rest of it turns people off.

He could channel this heartache into his performance of the Duke, but it all hurts too much to be useful. Anyway, he might try killing Seungkwan if he did that, and then he'd probably have to just go into exile.

Mingyu vows to get through it, to do his best like he has every day of his life, even when his best isn't good. Even at their worst, this team pulls off a good show, so he's sure it'll have, at the very least, a beginning and a middle and an end.

The first entrance goes alright. Mingyu rears Juan up, he menaces, he shouts, he pulls his dagger. He hops back up, stands tall, rides off. Slumps on a bench to wait for cues.

Between scenes, he's peeking in now and then, hovering, as he does, especially lately. The jousts look good, the energy is right. Wonu is ecstatic to be back and can't hide it, so his fight with Junhui is electric.

But then Seokmin starts winning when he isn't supposed to. He beats Jihoon in the joust and then he takes the flag toss, and it's only when King Alfonso declares the Orange Knight the victor that Mingyu realizes he and Seungkwan have switched their roles back without checking in.

It's okay as far as the show goes, but it doesn't make sense and Mingyu frankly hates it. Obviously, if Seokmin needed something, he wouldn't talk to Mingyu about it, because Mingyu messed up in a way that he won't be able to take back, now. Maybe he checked in with Jihyo; that part is fine, it's just that Mingyu doesn't know why, today of all days, Seokmin would take his role back. Why would he want more lines on a day when he's stressed? Why would be choose to fight Mingyu?

Ah, unless. To finally exact his revenge.

And Mingyu finds that he almost wants it. He almost wants Seokmin to hurt him tonight.

More rearing, more yelling, more dagger-wielding. Mingyu sacrifices Chan to Seokmin, he laughs piteously. He approaches Seokmin for this fight between them that's all worn-in now. The lines drip off his tongue like blood as he draws his sword.

Mingyu doesn't know what choreography they're gonna do, the easy one or the fancy, fun one they worked out together when they liked each other, or if Seokmin's gonna go off book and try to kill Mingyu for real. There's fire in Seokmin's eyes, a crinkle like he's grinning, a bounce like he's playing, and Mingyu feels afraid in a way that makes him feel alive, too.

Then Seokmin goes for it.

This time he's ready and Mingyu isn't. He's quick and lithe and he's good, he's really good at fighting when he isn't afraid. He's not as strong as Mingyu, but he is strong, and he's small, and he blocks and disarms and hits. There's music playing, loud and dramatic, but Mingyu thinks he hears Seokmin breathing. The gleam of light off his helmet is blindingly bright, the sunburst sigil on his chest. It'll be good to lose to him. To give it his best, and to really lose, finally.

Seokmin knocks Mingyu down with the butt of his sword, and Mingyu isn't expecting it, so he hits the ground hard and has to scramble to block Seokmin's next swing. God, it's close. It's really dangerous. Mingyu's heart is pounding in his teeth, his fingers.

Then Seokmin disarms Mingyu's block, swipes Mingyu's sword to the side. Mingyu is on his knees, staring down the tip of Seokmin's blade. He is at Seokmin's mercy. He can feel his entire body, the hung breath in the air between now and whatever Seokmin does to him next.

Seokmin takes his time drawing the point of his sword up from Mingyu's chest to the underside of his chin. He savors it, though his hand shakes just a little.

The music is loud, but Mingyu hears it clearly.

"You win, Hyung. I yield."

Through the visor of his helmet, Mingyu sees Seokmin’s eyes crinkle up with a brilliant grin.

Then, with a final swipe of his shining sword, the Orange Knight, Champion of the Realm, finally slays the wretched villain.

♞

YE OLDE EPILOGUE

It is the first moment in months that the Medieval Times cast has known true peace.

Everyone is in their right place. Soonyoung is back to playing the Duke. He still does his handstands and his flips, but he's been treating his routines a bit more carefully since his return. Wonu is back to his original role as well, the Black and White Knight, the Champion of the Realm.

Seungkwan, while normally the understudy now, is covering for Junhui this week, so that he and Minghao can go on a well-earned trip home to China. Chan, too, is exactly where he needs to be, as well as Jihoon. Seokmin is the Orange Knight again, and Mingyu, finally, is back to playing the Blue Knight. Now that he's back, he remembers how much he likes it. He remembers how much he likes to pretend to be romantic and beatific and handsome, rather than selfish and cruel.

The horses are all well, and Mingyu and Jihyo have been spending enough quality time together after work that the barn looks clean and the tack is mostly shining.

Horses are happy, costumes look clean. They're selling more tickets than they were this time last year.

They've finished the first show, and everybody's taken to staying as dressed and available as possible in between, because they've all had so many freakishly chaotic days lately that they know how to be extra-ready for anything. Soonyoung's adjusting his little hat over his blue hair, Seungkwan's getting Jihoon to re-tie tie his Yellow tunic in the back. Seungcheol is straightening his wig.

Mingyu just fed Seokmin a spoonful of rice. Seokmin scrunched up his nose and chewed it with his mouth open, just to be nasty.

On the doorframe, there's a knock. Mingyu looks up, and, anachronistic in his tight little polo shirt with sunglasses pushed up onto his head, he sees Director Park. He says, "Hey team! I just caught the show."

Mingyu stands up, looks around frantically to make sure nothing is out of place. Runs over the show, trying to remember all the parts he messed up. But no, everybody fought by the book tonight and the dressing room actually looks orderly for once. No one is kissing; everybody's decent. He says, as convincingly as possible, "Wow, hello Director Park. What a welcome surprise."

"Yeah, you know, it's been a couple weeks," Director Park waves off, leaning against the doorframe like he owns the place. It's actually been almost three months, if Mingyu's counting correctly. Director Park says, "Just wanted to check in, see the show, enjoy the faire."

"Certainly," Mingyu says. Wow, if he had stopped by even yesterday, Mingyu would have been scrambling to explain what he was gonna do about the falcon, but even that's handled now.

"You have a minute to chat?" he asks Mingyu.

"Sure, yeah, I'm actually all good to go," Mingyu says, going over his mental checklist once again. "Anybody need anything?" he calls to the room.

Heads shake, a couple noncommittal, "Nah, we're all good"s. Mingyu starts to follow Director Park toward the office behind the kitchen that Mingyu and Jihyo technically share and rarely ever visit.

"Looks excellent in here," Director Park says as they walk. "The show was great."

Mingyu thinks a shoe might be about to drop, but he isn't too scared. If he gets fired, it won't be because he hasn't done his best whenever he could. If he gets fired, he'll still have all his friends and his boyfriend and all the things he's learned and done before, so there's not much to fear.

When they sit down, Director Park in Mingyu's rolly chair and Mingyu in the plastic folding chair, he actually has nothing bad to say.

"First of all, I want to apologize for not being more available when Mr. Kwon was injured. There was a lot going on with the house in Jeju, so we were really preoccupied that week. But I liked how you handled the situation."

"Thank you," Mingyu says.

"I wish you hadn't promoted a Serf without approval. There are protocols, there are fitness checks we have to do. I think that was a bit reckless. I'd have suggested dropping one of the Knights from the show and performing with five."

"Sorry about that," Mingyu says.

Director Park waves it off like a gnat. "You were in a pinch. Better than canceling the show, and it sounds like he's fitting in well."

"He's the best Knight we have," Mingyu says honestly. "He's saved all of us a ton of times."

"You can keep him on, of course. And you have approval for a new hire, as well. You and Jihyo can get that done whenever you have time."

"I get my understudy?" Mingyu asks in disbelief. How this would have helped him six weeks ago, how little he needs it now.

"Sure. You're just gonna need to make sure he performs more than half of the time, or we're gonna have to let him go."

Mingyu laughs. "That'll be easy. That's great."

"I approved your budget increase, too."

"Seriously?"

"Sure," Director Park says, shrugging, like these details that make Mingyu's life an easier place to live in every day are nothing for him, easy. "We run a tight ship, don't we?"

"Yes, sir, we do," Mingyu says.

"What happened?" Seungkwan asks when Mingyu gets back to the dressing room. Everyone else is pretending not to be staring. 

"Is everything okay?" Seokmin asks quietly.

"Yeah," Mingyu says. "Everything is good. He said we're good at our jobs, and he thinks everything looks good, and then he almost fell out of the chair and I couldn't figure out whether I was supposed to laugh or not. Oh, and he approved my snack budget." Bam.

"Snack budget," Soonyoung says, gravely serious, eyes spinning like hypnotist wheels. "Hyung, a snack budget? You shouldn't have."

"Well, I did." Mingyu is a little proud.

“I love you,” Soonyoung says.

As silly as that is, it actually means something to Mingyu. Because, recently, he has figured out that when people say things like that to him, they really mean them. These people actually do love him, even on his off days. They want the best for him and will work as hard as they need to work to be the team Mingyu believes they can be. Not because Mingyu is perfect, but because he sets an example. He keeps doing his best, even when he messes up. Even when he messes up really bad, even when he's embarrassing and ugly in front of everyone. People still like Mingyu when he's genuine; Seokmin even loves it when he's weird. So he's trying that out now, more and more, with less and less fear of failure.

Mingyu used to think that being a Knight was about being right all the time, but that was never it. It's never been about the absence of weakness, only being brave despite it.

“And I love you," Mingyu agrees, to Soonyoung about the snack budget, and to everyone else for everything else.

**Author's Note:**

> [my twitter](http://twitter.com/svt_nap)


End file.
